Bristol Freighter

It had wide opening clamshell doors on the nose, and with a high-set flight deck, this allowed full access to the cargo bay, including the ability to drive a vehicle directly in via a ramp.

Considerable effort was made to maximise the usable internal volume of the aircraft in order to readily accommodate the carriage of bulky cargoes.

[6] Early on, it had been envisioned that the Freighter would play a logistical role in the South-East Asian theatre of the war, being operated by British Far East Command.

[7] The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a twin-engine, high mounted-wing monoplane that was developed specifically for the economic carriage of freight by air.

[3][12] The combination of a high-mounted wing and fixed undercarriage was considered to be atypical for the era, and resulted in greater drag than a low-mounted counterpart would have.

[10] The main gear legs, which featured Dowty-built shock absorbers, were supported by an arrangement of strengthened vertical struts, positioned beneath the aircraft's engines and horizontally from the lower edge of the fuselage.

[12] The lower nose of the Freighter was covered by a pair of large clamshell doors, for easy access to the main hold; as a direct consequence of this arrangement, the unpressurised fuselage was somewhat breezy during flight.

[10][14] To better facilitate loading, a built-in hoist is installed on the fixed upper surface of the nose, which reduced the need for airport-based infrastructure.

[10] On the passenger-carrying Wayfarer variant, the nose-mounted doors were substituted by a fixed shell and the area immediately behind would be used either as a cargo hold or galley.

[10][6] Manufacturing of the Freighter was eased by many components being standardised and identical where feasible; this ideology was also applied to elements of the internal structure, such as the longerons, frames, and skin.

[17] The managing director of Silver City Airways was Wing Commander Griffith James Powell, who realised that he could adapt the Bristol Freighter to fly passengers with their cars from Britain to Continental Europe and Jersey.

On 14 July 1948, the airline made the first flight with a car, from Lympne Airport in Kent to Le Touquet on the northern coast of France.

[19] Silver City Airways dubbed this variant the Superfreighter and subsequently built an airport named "Ferryfield" at Lydd in Kent, beginning air ferry services in 1955.

The New Zealand aircraft was delivered to Straits Air Freight Express (SAFE), which eventually operated one of the largest fleets of Freighters.

The loader accepted cargons from horizontal-tray road vehicles and then raised them to the level of the aircraft's cargo deck on electrically powered screw-jacks.

Freighters were the major link between the Chatham Islands and mainland New Zealand until Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft replaced them.

In military service, Bristol Freighters were operated by the air forces of Argentina, Australia, Burma, Canada, Iraq, Pakistan and New Zealand.

The Royal Canadian Air Force used five Freighters to carry spares and supplies between the United Kingdom and their bases in France and West Germany.

Bristol freighter Mk 31M G-BISU was operated by Instone Airline at Stansted, Essex, UK, for a number of years.

This role of flying livestock was to take up half a year, while other work included carriage of oil drilling machinery, car parts, newspapers and mail.

The captain, John Duncan, and co-pilot Malcolm Cutter reported that the aircraft entered a severe yaw after takeoff, which was uncontrollable despite use of full opposite aileron and rudder control.

[23] The last Freighter in service, which flew for Instone Airline then later returned to New Zealand, was bought from surplus by Hawkair in Terrace, British Columbia, Canada.

Bristol Freighter cockpit
Bristol Freighter 31M in Norcanair markings at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2007
Bristol Freighter operated by Aer Lingus being loaded through the clamshell nose doors in 1952
Bristol 170 Freighter Mk31 of Atlantic Air Transport
A Bristol 170 Series 31 Merchant Venturer of SAFE Air at Auckland International Airport in 1973. (doors open)
In commercial service at Liverpool, 1964
Bristol in military service, 1969
Royal Canadian Air Force Bristol 170 31M of the RCAFs European-based 1st Air Division in 1966
Silver City Airways Freighter 32 loading a car for Cherbourg at Southampton in September 1954
A Silver City Airways Bristol Freighter, viewed from under the wing of an Avro York at Berlin-Tempelhof, 1954
Bristol Freighter 31 of Dan-Air operating a cargo service at Manchester Airport in 1964.
A 41 Squadron RNZAF Bristol Freighter in Thailand, 1962.
A Bristol Freighter of the Pakistan Air Force
A81-1 at the RAAF Museum
Safe Air Freighter 31 preserved at Omaka, NZ
Cargo hold of a Freighter
NZ Services Medical Team collecting supplies from an RNZAF Bristol Freighter at Qui Nhon, South Vietnam, 1969