December 5, 20205 yr I caught this file, today, at the top of the Flightsim Library list...interesting aircraft, for its time. It was a plane of the 1950s/1960s, called Bristol 188, and was a remarkable prototype of contemporary technology. 10 Curious facts: B-188 was being designed to meet Mach (2.0+) (operational) speed requirements. Its length and slender cross-section led to its being nicknamed the "Flaming Pencil". Serial No. XF926 (shown below) was the second to fly (and also the last). XF926 would make over 51 test flights, however, it could manage a top speed of Mach 1.88. To achieve the required strength, the (fuselage) structure was mostly made of stainless steel (aluminum will appear in the Concorde later). B-188's engines had greater diameter than the fuselage (see screenshots). Extremely high fuel consumption limited its (maximum) useful flight time to only about 30-40 minutes (most of it subsonic). It had a downward swiveling nose, which later featured on the Concorde. Although the B-188 program was eventually abandoned, the technical know-how gained was put to use for the future Concorde program. In 1966, Bristol would be purchased by Rolls-Royce, and contribute to the making of Olympus 593 engines that would power Concorde's first (supersonic) flight in 1969, at speed Mach 2. Hope you enjoy the following 10 images of this unique pioneer aircraft. Thanks for viewing. [Freeware(B-188), Orbx(NZ), REX]
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