Bristol 188
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Like many aircraft designed from British aircraft companies in the period just before and after the second world war, the Bristol 188 was far in advance of its time. It was drawn up for a research aircraft with the specification ER.134T, as a test bed for attaining speeds greater than Mach 2. This research would take into account the little known science of kinetics and the subsequent heating effects on such an aircraft.
Several firms took interest in this very advanced specification and the eventual contract was awarded to the Bristol Aeroplane Company, number 6/Acft/10144 in February 1953.
Bristol gave the aircraft the type number 188, of which three aircraft were to be built, one a pure test bed and the other two [constructors numbers 13518 and 13519] for flight testing. XF923 and XF926 serial numbers were given on 4 January, 1954 under contract number KC/2M/04/CB.42(b). Another three aircraft were planned: XK429, XK434 and XK436, but these were subsequently cancelled.
The very advanced nature of the aircraft meant that stainless steel was used for the construction of the outer skin with a honeycomb centre, to which no paint was applied, but the problems with the new Argon arc welding technique known as puddle-welding caused long delays in and was less than satisfactory. W. G. Armstrong Whitworth gave much technical help and support to Bristol and the eventual resulting aircraft showed how Britain could have lead the world in advanced aircraft design and manufacture.
Rolls Royce engines were at first selected to power the 188, but five engine combinations were tried, Two with Avon 200s, two with the De Havilland Gyron Junior and one with an AJ.65, the latter disintegrating on test. But the final choice for the 188 were two 10,000 lbf (44 kN) thrust Gyron DGJ10Rs developing 14,000 lbf (62 kN) of thrust on reheat at sea level and 20,000 lbf (89 kN) at Mach 2 at 36,000 ft (11 km). This alone gave De havilland much of a boost for their production of the eventual Olympus engine to power TSR2 and Concorde.
Farnborough in May 1960 saw the first aircraft delivered in May 1960 for structural tests before moving on to RAE Bedford. XF943 undertook the first taxiing trials on 26 April, 1961 but the first flight was not until 14 April 1962 following problems. XF926 had the first flight on 26 April, 1963 managing to reach a speed of Mach 1.88 (2,300 km/h) at 36,000 feet (11 km).
The final outcome was the project suffered a number of problems and though it was eventually abandoned, the knowledge and technical information gained was more than put to good use for the future Concorde programme.
The fate of all but one aircraft was obvious and XF926 ended up in the Cosford Aerospace Museum.
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