Icons
David Farrar OBE CEng MA FRAeS FRSA HonFIED looks back at
100 years of iconic aerospace engineering projects in Bristol.
The word icon originated from Byzantine and Greek religious miles an hour (Engineering Designer, January/February 2009).
paintings, but one of its meanings today includes: ‘characterised At the project’s launch Lord Drayson, Minister of State for
by fame’. Science and Innovation, described the project’s iconic status
The use of the word when describing products and designs and purpose as: “a catalyst for the next generation of British
arose from the British Design Council’s nominations from the engineers.”
1940s onward (although in those days it was known as the The design team is based in Bristol, and they are now
Council of Industrial Design). Such design icons included the showing the world, via the internet and in real time, how
London Underground Railway’s map, the London omnibus, and a complex engineering product is actually designed and by
the Concorde aircraft. whom. But the Bloodhound SSC will not be the fi rst iconic
design to emerge from Bristol.
What makes a design icon?
Evidently visual appeal had a high ranking in the Design One hundred years of aerospace at Bristol
Council’s judgement. Diffi culty, size and complexity of In 1909 the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company was set
engineering projects do not necessarily qualify for fame. up in Bristol. It became famous in the 1930s as the Bristol
Projects such as nuclear power stations seem to not be Aeroplane Company, making a twin engined monoplane, the
regarded as icons. Some British aircraft, such as the Comet, ‘Britain First’ (or Bristol Type 142), which was faster than
might have become so, but were dogged by failures. the fi ghter aircraft of the time. A celebration of 100 years of
The vital ingredient seems to be that a project catches aerospace at Bristol can be found on www.bristolaero.com and
people’s imagination. Thus, the atomic bomb would be an icon the anniversary is being marked in Bristol in several ways.
of the fi rst half of the 20th century, and the Apollo Project an Within living memory there have been aerospace
icon of the second half. engineering projects at Bristol which might qualify as ‘iconic’. I
The latest iconic engineering project was launched on have been fortunate to have been associated with fi ve of them.
23 October, 2008. The Bloodhound SSC aims to break the Some were a world fi rst, others were commercially successful
landspeed record and will be the fi rst car to achieve 1000 (sometimes both).
’’40s40s
1940s – A passenger aircraft to fl y the Atlantic non-stop
This was just possible with eight of the largest piston engines available, clever ’60s
streamlining, very light structure, and much new technology, in the Brabazon aircraft.
The fatal fl aw was a failure to predict technical improvements which permitted
smaller faster aircraft, such as the Constellation, to be more economic, despite
limited range. With the turboprop, the Britannia, the next Bristol aircraft, was the
fi rst to achieve the non-stop objective, but American jet aircraft were soon to do so,
eventually with lower fares.
1940s – An aeroplane to carry cars and trucks
The Bristol Freighter was a simple aircraft designed to carry two three-ton trucks.
It proved amazingly versatile, carrying more than 600,000 cars with passengers to
France, pilgrims to Mecca, beef from farms, equipment to mines, racehorses to races,
and passengers on local fl ights. It sprayed locusts and bombed terrorists.
The aircraft was a commercial success – over 200 were made.
28
www.ied.org.uk
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