Bristol Freighter

Useful pics

But sadly that nothing like the fitted cabins in the rear of the British Superfreighter 32s

The Superfeighter was a specialised combi and was fully furnished in the pax cabin.There was bulkhead dividers and wall covering with window service units and a luggage rack.

Th NZ Freighters never had a rear cabin like the 32 which had extra windows cut into the rear and a cloakroom at the back as well as a toilet.

Mark 21 and 31 car ferries in the UK had full furnished pax interiors but I have no details. The NZ ones would probably have been similar to those.

Most freight only Freighters had provision for ‘staff’ seating in the rear which is the sort of thing the pics show. They would also carry the odd paying guest on an as is basis.

At the end of their lives in the UK, the Superfreighters carried only freight and were stripped out much as the interior of the NZ one there shows.

There is a small chance that the trip starting this thread was on the only Mk 31 operated by BUAF/BAF at the time in which case the interior was similar but a little further forward.

Attached are two shots I took of the passenger compartment
on Bristol Freighter ZK-CLU (msn: 13156) in Nelson, New Zealand
in 2000. The toilet in the nose door was for the crew and the
passenger toilet was in the tail compartment at the back.

Looks positively palatial!!

There is also a top book on SAFE Air by Lester Hope and
others called “Safe In The Air” published in NZ which covers
NZ Freighter operations.

It’s called ‘Safe in the Skies’, ISBN number 0473071363. 🙂

There’s a couple of copies on used.addall.com, both from the USA.

Cheers

Simon

Sandridge,

There was quite a few Freighters in New Zealand operated by
SAFE Air up till about 1985 or so.
They carried passengers and freight the same as in the UK.
Attached are two shots I took of the passenger compartment
on Bristol Freighter ZK-CLU (msn: 13156) in Nelson, New Zealand
in 2000. The toilet in the nose door was for the crew and the
passenger toilet was in the tail compartment at the back.

There is also a top book on SAFE Air by Lester Hope and
others called “Safe In The Air” published in NZ which covers
NZ Freighter operations.

Try this

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_Bristol_Freighter-Airline_British_United_Air_Ferries_Aviation_Video-9663.html

Tango Charlie………I would be interesed to see that pic as I am making a flight simulator model of the Superfreighter and one of the problems all along has been sourcing references:)

Garry

many thanks garry,thats helped clear up a few things ive been trying to remember all these years

NP

Check you PM’s

Garry

Freighter Interior

Somewhere i have a picture taken in the cabin of a Silver City B170 Super Freighter en route Lydd ferry port to Le Touquet circa 65. My father transferred from Aquila airlines when they folded in 58, to Silver City part of the then Britavia Group. I recall as a 5 year old being given a boiled sweet to suck on as we descended over France. I am always reminded of this when i fly commercially and a baby or young child starts to scream on the descent unable and not knowing how to adjust ear pressure. Will try to search it out and post over the xmas period.

many thanks garry,thats helped clear up a few things ive been trying to remember all these years

Hi sandridge

Yes it was probably carrying cars but I doubt if you would have felt any draught from the nose doors

The doors were fairly well sealed by an overlap and rubber and in any case there would have been a bulkhead between you and the freight hold.

The rear pax door was not an air tight fit and that may have given draughts but perhaps that was just the cabin vent system

I was on a Dash Eight earlier this week and that was draughty from the vents.

The engines were not cartridge started but did produce a lot of smoke on starting.

The cabin usually had seats facing fore and aft and was more akin to a period rail carriage than an airliner cabin.

I was told it belonged to Hawkair Aviation services in Canada and it was being purchased by an undisclosed buyer who represents himself and a group based in Bristol. All told, it is to have it’s final resting place next to Concorde at the Bristol Aero Collection at Filton later this year. Their are plans to keep it flying in the UK for an undetermined time, provided that certain requirements and support needs can be reached.

G-BISU was the last Freighter to fly in the UK but was destroyed in a non fatal crash while taking off from Enstone, Oxfordshire in 1996.

Maybe a new airframe to be maintained at Coventry perhaps!! Happy days!!……so long as they don’t move away 🙁

What concerns me is that there is all this talk about bringing the Freighter back from Canada for the Bristol Aero Collection, but they can’t even get a hangar for Concorde, so what chance does the Freighter stand except being parked outside to rot alongside Concorde?

Texan – the last example flying in the U.K was on the ‘circuit’ so as to speak before it crashed. There is no guarantee with a flying aircraft that it will enter preservation.
The RAFM wouldn’t be an appropriate home for one as only a tiny handful were used for military purposes in the U.K.

Not sure whether anyone has mentioned this for discussion but top news if true- only ‘concern’ I imagine would be its location outside at Filton, it would perhaps have been nice to see it operated on the circuit (with AAs twin pin – a tremendous sight) or if to be static under cover, say at RAFM

….

TT

Not sure what your ‘top news’ is, but this is the link for the Canadian Freighter! 🙂

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=55095&highlight=Bristol+freighter

Nah, cut off the concordes nose and display it INSIDE the Freighter, met a jolly nice chap at recent Air Britain seminar at the ‘drome who was writing a book on the Freighter – that would appeal to him more! 😀

TT

:diablo: Or it could have the cockpit cut off and be displayed at East Fortune

Bristol Freighter in Bristol house colours

Bristol Freighter 31 at Farnborough in 1949, G-18-2, the military prototype, formerly G-AGVC.
From page 46 of “40 Years at Farnborough” by John Blake and Mike Hooks.

I too have a soft spot for Freighters and a question for you: Does anyone know the colors carried by G-AIMC on it’s 1947 sales tour ‘down under’? It ended up at Wau in PNG after passing through Australia and NZ IIRC. Bristol “house” colours perhaps?
David M2

There is a photo of IMC departing Sydney in 1947 in ‘British Civil Aircraft since 1919’ by AJ Jackson(1st edition) sadly i can’t scan it. But it is largely silver with(I assume) a thick dark blue line that comes up eather side from a V at the nose and goes along the top of the fuselarge and the bottom on the tail, Bristol titles on the tail and Australian flag and union flag on the nose.

Dave,

Have you seen the video that they screen at the Blenheim museum? The museum with the recreated Blenheim village, car and train collections, etc. I saw an excellent video there last year and a clip in it showed the first Bristol Freighter to arrive at Blenheim (Omaka i think, or Woody). Could that be the one you mean? I can’t recall fully after over a year.

I too have a soft spot for Freighters and a question for you: Does anyone know the colors carried by G-AIMC on it’s 1947 sales tour ‘down under’? It ended up at Wau in PNG after passing through Australia and NZ IIRC. Bristol “house” colours perhaps?
David M2

I found this on a trawl through some long lost archives. What I can tell you is that it was taken in France in July 1983 (on Kodachrome 64!). I recall, vaguely, that it was at Beauvais. Can anyone shed any further light on the aircraft history etc?

TIA

CM

Beauvais would be about right I saw it there a couple of times. Think it used to do horse charters out of Stansted. Sadly missed, a big loss to the UK scene.