
The Bristol Brabazon Was a Pretty Piece of Useless Scrap - smacktoward
https://jalopnik.com/the-bristol-brabazon-was-the-prettiest-piece-of-useless-1625961379
======
Animats
Oh, the legroom![1]

[1]
[https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/6/6a/Im1951EnV192-p157....](https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/6/6a/Im1951EnV192-p157.jpg)

------
benj111
So why not refit it to provide more seating?

If it was a hit at air shows there must have been a halo around the 'brand',
so why not take advantage by going down market.

~~~
Animats
Because, weight. Before jets, aircraft were weight-limited, rather than
volume-limited. It took 8 engines, with a total of 144 cylinders, to get this
thing off the ground. That's not the record; the more successful B-36
Peacemaker, from the same period, had six piston engines, with 168 cylinders
total, plus four jet engines. Here's the famous B-36 takeoff sequence from
"Strategic Air Command", starring Jimmy Stewart.[1]

Those were the last of the giant piston powered planes. The successful Douglas
DC-7 was reasonably large (105 passengers) by the standards of the time, but
even a B-727 was much bigger.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJVxtTNjJk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJVxtTNjJk)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
Thanks for posting that link.

The B-36 is magnificent from an engineering standpoint. The film did an
outstanding job of capturing that.

Amazing how risky things were. These guys had parachutes on the whole time.

