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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1919

Варианты

C.Barnes Bristol Aircraft since 1910 (Putnam)

The Bristol Tourer

   In January 1919 a request was made by Sir Frederick Sykes, Controller of Civil Aviation, for three of the Bristol Fighters still in production to be delivered as unarmed communications two-seaters, with extra tankage for 5 hours' duration and dual controls. Another of the same batch was fitted with a hinged coupe cover over the passenger's seat, specially furnished to provide maximum comfort; the cockpit enclosure gave a useful reduction in drag, resulting in a top speed of 128 m.p.h. In this aeroplane, H1460, Uwins flew Herbert Thomas from Filton to Hounslow on 1 May 1919 to meet General Seely in London; on that day civil aviation became lawful in the United Kingdom for the first time since August 1914. The Bristol Coupe, as H1460 was called, was purchased by the Air Board on 19 May 1919.
   Three days later, Barnwell crashed the Badger X, which had been intended both as a laboratory machine and as his personal runabout; it was not repaired and Barnwell installed the Puma engine from it in a Fighter airframe converted to civil standards, in the same way as the three Falcon-engined dual-control Fighters, H1687 to H1689, which were delivered in July 1919. The Puma-engined version, No. 5867, was registered as G-EAIZ on 7 August and received a certificate of airworthiness on 16 September 1919. It was used at first as a Puma test-bed and soon became so popular as a general Company hack that it was named the Tourer, and a second Tourer, No. 5868, was built and registered as G-EANR on 23 September. This was exhibited at the Paris Salon in December 1919 with a four-bladed airscrew. Barnwell had never liked the underslung cooling system designed by the R.A.E. for the Puma-engined Bristol Fighter, and preferred a nose radiator high up, where pump and thermal siphon effects were complementary, with vertical shutters for temperature control. The pilot's view for landing was unaffected and the system could be kept working even if the pump failed; moreover, the damage in a forced landing was less extensive and easier to repair. Both these considerations were of prime importance for world-wide operation over undeveloped terrain.
   For its peacetime design programme, the Company aimed at producing a two- or three-seat biplane suitable for such applications, and Barnwell had begun to design one with a three-cylinder Cosmos Lucifer engine of 100 h.p., at first known as the Rancher and later renamed the Colonial. This design had made little progress by July 1919, when an enquiry came in for a version of the Tourer to carry two passengers. Barnwell designed a simple modification of the Tourer with a wide rear cockpit seating two passengers side-by-side; a coupe top was an alternative to the open cockpit. This was so simple to produce that the Colonial was abandoned and both two-seat and three-seat Tourers went into production for demonstration and sale in the U.S.A., where the Company's New York agent had reported a promising market, including enquiries for seaplanes. He had already sold No. 5868 (G-EANR) which was shipped to New York in May.
   Two open three-seaters, Nos. 5873 and 5874, were put in hand as twin-float seaplanes with interchangeable wheeled chassis, together with five open three-seaters (Nos. 5876-5880) and one two-seater (No. 5881). The New York agent then asked for a three-seater Coupe, so the first of these, No. 5891, not yet completed, was substituted for No. 5876 and the rest of the batch (Nos. 5877-5881) were shipped to New York at the end of May. For the American market, Tourers were finished in dark battleship grey with pale blue undersurfaces, with the word 'Bristol' in longhand style painted on the fuselage sides. One of them, probably 5868, was sold to Joseph F. Thorne, who used it to fly bullion to the coast from his silver mines in Nicaragua, but the fate of the others is unknown. The three-seater COUPE No. 5891, was exhibited at Olympia in July 1920, before being shipped to New York in August. Meanwhile No. 5876, the first of the batch, was purchased by the Instone Air Line on 3 June 1920, with the registration G-EART. G-EAIZ and a new two-seater, No. 5892 (G-EAVU), had been successfully demonstrated in Belgium and Norway, so 15 more Tourers, comprising six open and six coupe three-seaters and three open two-seaters, Nos. 6108-6122, were laid down in anticipation of an expanding market. But only initial deposits had been paid on the Tourers ordered in America, and when difficulties arose over import duties the New York agency was closed down, so no more machines were shipped. The two seaplanes were amongst those cancelled, but later an order was received from Siberia and work on them continued. The first seaplane was flown from Avonmouth on 15 October 1920, when Uwins took-off from calm water in 400 yds. with two passengers and 40 lb. of ballast. The floats, designed by Major Vernon, were built of mahogany with a single step and six watertight compartments in each; they weighed 200 lb. each, and, since they were 19 ft. 6 in. long, no tail float was required. The Siberian order for the two seaplanes was cancelled before delivery, and they were then offered to Canada but apparently not sold there. However, a final two-seater Tourer, No. 6123, was shipped to Canada in May 1921 for the Newfoundland Air Survey Company; it took part in the gold rush to Stag Bay, Labrador, later that year and was flown on skis.
   The beginning of 1921 found the Company with 14 unsold Tourers on hand, only one of the two-seaters, No. 6122, having been bought, in December 1920, by a private owner, Alan S. Butler, and registered G-EAWB. In this he left Croydon on 2 April 1921 to tour southern Europe and returned in June having had no mishaps of any kind. He entered it in the Aerial Derby on 16 July and completed the course in the fourth fastest time at an average speed of 106 m.p.h., thereby winning the third prize of ?50 in the Handicap Race. These exploits so convinced Alan Butler of the value of private flying that he joined forces with Geoffrey de Havilland and was for many years Chairman of the de Havilland Aircraft Company.
   Meanwhile, in April 1921, a Spanish customer, Senor Bayo, ordered two three-seaters, one closed and one open, through the Company's agents at Bilbao. These, Nos. 6114 (G-EAWQ) and 6112 (G-EAWR), re-registered M-AAEA and M-AEAA, were flown out to Spain by Andrew Forson and Major Hereward de Havilland, respectively, at the end of April. The only authorised route of entry into Spain was via San Sebastian, whose airfield, Lasarte, was surrounded by mountains. Forson arrived safely in the Coupe, cleared Customs and then took-off into a cloud-bank; minutes later he crashed into a mountainside near Anzuola and was killed. Major de Havilland delivered the open Tourer to Madrid without incident, but found he had to give flying lessons to Senor Bayo, so the Company's dual-control demonstrator G-EAVU, which had taken the place ofG-EAIZ in November 1920, went to Madrid until September 1921, when it was replaced by No. 6121 (MAFFA) together with two more open three-seaters (6109, M-AAAF and 6110, M-AFFF). The remaining two-seater, No. 6120 (G-EAXA), was retained as a demonstrator to replace G-EAVU, which was scrapped after its return from Madrid. The remaining eight three-seaters were all sold in Australia; the first (6117, G-AUCA) was supplied in June 1921 to Colonel Brinsmead, Controller of Civil Aviation, who toured over 9,000 miles in it while surveying new air routes; six more were bought in September 1921 by Major Norman Brearley, who had secured the Federal Government's air mail contract for a weekly service between Geraldton and Perth. The six Tourers, all with coupe tops (Nos. 6108,6111,6115,6116, 6118 and 6119), registered G-AUDF to G-AUDK, respectively, were shipped to Fremantle in time to start the service on 4 December 1921, but G-AUDI crashed the next day, killing its pilot and mechanic; after an enquiry, the service restarted and thereafter achieved 97% regularity. Five Tourers were not enough to maintain the service, and the last remaining Tourer airframe, No. 6113, supplied as a spare, is believed to have been combined with the wreck of G-AUCA (crashed in March 1923) to produce G-AUDX, which continued flying until September 1930. Another of the Western Australian Airways fleet, G-AUDH, which crashed in July 1924, was rebuilt as G-AUDZ and survived until February 1931. A famous 'Tourer', G-AUEB, was converted from a 300 h.p. Hispano-Suiza Fighter (H1248) and flown in 1922 and 1923 by Hudson Fysh and other pilots of Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Services; later it became one of the first Flying Doctor ambulances in Northern Territories, and its career ended in the goldfields at Wau, New Guinea, in April 1928. The Tourers of Western Australian Airways had flown over 200,000 miles by September 1923 and nearly 485,000 miles by June 1926, when they were replaced in regular service by D.H.50's; during this period they had logged 6,400 flying hours and had carried more than 3,000 passengers and 400,000 letters and parcels, including valuable consignments of pearls from the north-west coast fisheries. Two of the retired Tourers were bought by a syndicate of W.A.A. pilots and No. 6119 (G-AUDK) was flown 2,300 miles from Perth to Sydney, carrying the first trans-Australian woman passenger, Mrs. J. W. Marshall; then it was flown round the entire continent, a distance of 7,500 miles, in 10 days and 5 hours, by Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles DIm, in June 1927. An attempt a year later to fly the same Tourer to England was less successful, for three days after leaving Camooweal on 9 September 1928, Keith Anderson and his passenger, Hitchcock, crashed at Pine Creek, N.T., the aircraft being totally wrecked. None of the Australian Tourers escaped crash demolition in the end; but, for so worthy a scion of the Fighter breed, this was a more fitting fate in a pioneering country than to decay in a hangar, unwanted, unfuelled, and unswung.

SPECIFICATIONS AND DATA

   Type: Tourer
   Manufacturer: The British & Colonial Aeroplane Co. Ltd., and The Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd., Filton, Bristol

Type Coupe 2-Seater 3-Seater Coupe 3-Seater Open Seaplane
Power Plant 275 hp 230 hp Siddeley Puma
   Rolls-Royce
   Falcon III
Span 39 ft 3 in 39 ft 5 in 39 ft 5 in 39 ft 5 in 39 ft 5 in
Length 25 ft 10 in 26 ft 1 in 26 ft 1 in 26 ft 1 in 29 ft 6 in
Height 9 ft 6 in 10 ft 10 ft 10 ft 11 ft 5 in
Wing Area 405 sq ft 407 sq ft 407 sq ft 407 sq ft 407 sq ft
Empty Weight 1,900 lb 1,700 lb 1,900 lb 1,900 lb 2,100 lb
All-up Weight 2,800 lb 2,800 lb 3,000 lb 3,000 lb 3,000 lb
Max. Speed 128 mph 120 mph 120 mph 117 mph 110 mph
Absolute Ceiling 24,000 ft 22,000 ft 20,000 ft 20,000 ft 17,000 ft
Accommodation 2 2 3 3 3
Production 1 12 10 8 2
Sequence Nos. 5178 5867 5868 5891 6108 5876-5880 5873 5874
   5881 5892 6111 6113 6109 6110
   6120-6123 -6119 6112
   6239-6242

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Описание:

  • C.Barnes Bristol Aircraft since 1910 (Putnam)
  • A.Jackson British Civil Aircraft since 1919 vol.1 (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight