History

The Bristol Britannia was designed in the late 1940 to fly on routes across the British Empire. However, due to problems experienced during development it did not enter service until 1957 and was quickly overtaken by pure jet airliners.

The Bristol Britannia was developed in response to the Brabazon Committee’s plans for post-war British air transport.

Design began in 1948 and the first of two prototypes flew on 16 August 1952.

However, due to an extended test program impose following the deHavilland Comet crashes and problems with intake icing the first Britannia airline service was not flown until February 1957.

By this time pure jet airliners were beginning to enter service and only 85 Britannias were built.

British Eagle was a major independent British airline that operated from 1948 to 1968.

This model represents G-ARKA in service with British Eagle, c.1968.

Welsh Models 1/144 kits with TwoSix decals completed by Leigh Edmonds in October 2010.

Data

MODEL: Bristol Britannia 310 (British Eagle, G-ARKA, 1968)

ROLE: Medium to long range airliner

TIME PERIOD: 1957-1980s

ENGINES: four Bristol Proteus 765 turboprop engines of 3,320kW each

WING SPAN: 43.36m

LENGTH: 37.88m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 84,000kg

CRUISING SPEED: 575km/h

RANGE: 3852km

PAYLOAD: Maximum passengers capacity 139

CREW: 4 to 7

SCALE: 1/144

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