The Flaming Pencil - Britain's Supersonic Jet That Almost Melted Itself
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- In the early 1960s, the Bristol 188 blazed through the tumultuous Cold War skies, a product of the intense race for technological dominance between East and West. The most expensive British research aircraft project at the time of its creation, this state-of-the-art steel marvel was built to push the boundaries of supersonic flight and conquer speeds beyond Mach 2.
Nicknamed the “Flaming Pencil,” its needle-like fuselage and swept-back wings epitomized the peak aerodynamics of the era, a futuristic testament to British innovation and engineering prowess.
However, creating an aircraft capable of traveling at such blistering speeds would pose serious challenges that would put Bristol’s design team to the test. Extremely high velocities meant extremely high temperatures, meaning that the structure and materials used would require careful consideration. The project was driven by the determined desire of the designers to overcome these obstacles and reach their goals.
While the Bristol 188’s career was short-lived, never seeing operational use, the critical insights into aerodynamic heating and material resilience yielded from the program influenced future breakthroughs in aviation, most notably paving the way for the iconic Concorde supersonic passenger jet which would revolutionize commercial air travel in ways never previously thought possible. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Wouldn't it be nice if real people voiced these videos...
Yes!!!
1963 and it's still not at M 2.0
The F-4 Phantom, Lightning and Mirage III all did that ... in 1958
Very futuristic looking aircraft but was largely killed of with the move from interceptor jets to the Surface to Air Missile in the late 1950s. It never flew over Mach 2 in its final form, however the new English Electric Lightning interceptor had entered service and it was capable of Mach 2.23 or 1,500 mph, flying on more reliable Rolls Royce Avon engines (rejected for the 188 ?) The older Fairey Delta FD-2 also reached Mach 2, and with new "Concorde wings" it became the development aircraft for the Concorde airliner.
British SR-71 . If you painted in matt black ( god forbid....) it would look state of the art !
My thoughts exactly.
Wrong fuselage material and weak engines
looks like a larger f 104 that had engine pods stuck on with larger wings
I thought the same thing. It actually looks like Kelly Johnson had a few too many and built an F-104/A-12 hybrid for giggles.
Why are you claiming it's testing was important in thermo engineering when, you show videos of the X-15? The X-15's data on temperature heating put this airplane to shame. Also, while the British were bumbling around, we already had the X-15, XB-70, B-58, and the A-12.
Take it easy man! No need to create enemies!
I could wrap up the video much quicker. The 188 failed to meet any of its ambitious design goals. The end.
5:30 "the wheels lodged in the empennage"? Really. Looks like they retracted into the fuselage.The empennage is a long way aft from there!
That plane looks a lot like that jet car they broke the sound barrier in on the salt flats. They named it the Thrust. It has a very similar layout to that jet car, but without the wings.
I cannot understand why the 188 was not cancelled when the Lightning was developing to M2.3-M2.5 and entered RAF service in 1960. This was well before the 188 had even got to trials. the TSR2 in 1964 first flight outclimbed the Lightning chase planes!
Sir George Eswards, head of BAC, said of the 188 "We learned not to build aircraft like that..".
Not an area rule platform?
No notice for some reason. Let's check it out.
16:50 Those two Frank Whittle engines in the foreground look awesome.
Very informative 😊 thank you.
Wow, the similarity between this and the Thrust SSC land speed car is unmistakable !
I was about to comment the same...
I remember seeing a mock-up or model of this plane at the Farnborough Air Show in the early 60s. It blew my mind. I even heard that the leading edge of the tailplane was so sharp that you coul'd cut your finger on it. What would I have thought to hear that routine mach 2 was only a couple of years away for fighters, or that at the same time the Oxcart / SR71 was being developed ?
"More than 346 million pounds in today's money" (15:21)... dang, that almost sounds cute compared to what testing costs nowadays.
This aircraft can now be seen at Cosford aerospace Museum, Staffordshire.
A beautiful looking aircraft!
By Jove. They made beautiful airplanes in those days. And all kinds of them.
And let's face it, this one could fit into a Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds series instantly.
Nice to see something on this rare aircraft, but a real human narrator would make it even better.
I see a strong resemblance to the SR-71. I bet this would be an awesome plane today w/ modern avaionics, materials, radar, etc.
Thanks for this story. These bits and pieces of history should not be forgotten. That 1956 white paper of Duncan Sandies killed a lot of aviation progress and led some other countries down a rabbit hole to a dead end. That paper alone was the biggest single factor in Canada abandoning the CF-105 interceptor in favor of 'missiles' resulting in Bomarc missiles being deployed in Canada. Bomarcs in Canada were useless as the warheads were not installed. In their place were sandbags to maintain the missile's balance.
Interceptor programs all over the Western World (including the U.S.) fell to missile mania that promised all sorts of “cheaper” solutions in more cash starved post-WW2 retrenching militaries. Unfortunately doctrinaire attitudes held that conventional wars were over despite the counterfactual of the Korean War and they were yet to learn that lesson yet again in Vietnam. Colonel Robin Olds was told by Pentagon brass to “get it through [his] head that conventional wars were over.” Unfortunately that attitude was pervasive.
I.missed an opportunity to get a picture of the cockpit a few years ago. I still want to kick myself over it!
Excellent although they should be pronounced one eight eight not one hundred and eighty eight. The Fairey Delta 2 is an interesting plane with major influence on Concorde as Dasault’s awesome Mirage series of fighters.
The British blackbird?
UMMMM , No..... no not even close.
It kept showing video of the French SNCASO Trident!
and TSR2.
same problem in other videos from this channel
We were ahead
The designers should considered the Iroquois turbo jet engines designed for the Avro Arrow.
Rather than “variable” wing don’t you mean “varied” wing?
Mach 2?
"swept-back wings"?
I wonder where the SR-71 design came from?
Lockheed???
Kelly Johnson.....
Its (bad) Aerodynamics was why it was so slow! Britain know nothing about Area Rule, or any aero tricks.
Buccaneer.
Not sure if the area rule applies to supersonic platforms.
If you look at the cross-section of many supersonic aircraft, they don't seem to adhere to the area rule. Compare the Bucaneer to the Tornado. The Bucaneer is subsonic and follows the area rule whilst the Tornado is supersonic and from my knowledge it's shape doesn't appear to, but I stand to be corrected.
@125brat sorry, area rule does apply above Mach 1 and has often been applied. However, supersonic aircraft also have to manage the shock waves, so the impact of area rule on the design is not so visually obvious. I used Buccaneer to refute the 'claim' that British aviation engineers didn't understand area rule in the 1950s.
C'mon man!
I like it when americans say english words
🏁🏁🏁🏁
Stupid waste of time and money. Other aircraft of the period were way more sophisticated and alot faster.
Too good, it made Uncle Sam jealous, had to be binned.
Lols the world stubs its toe and blames the usa at this point
Who canceled tsr2 again wasn't it labor
Bristol one eight eight. Not one hundred and eighty eight! Blah!!
Looks like a model, not a real aircraft.
👶🏻👶🏻 🛩️
Earth is flat.
Is it??? Thanks, did not know that ..... and now I remember we all live on disk world and are carried through space by 2 turtles and a big elephant ...many books have been written on this fact .....
@@adrianpeters2413 It's not for you. Earth is flat.
@@pixelnazgul agree totally , did you know the sea is increasing in volume and height due to all the ships and boats displacing all that water ..especially thenew u.s.aircraft carrier series .. obviously, also around the edge of this flat world is a lot of banana trees ,as elephants really really like to eat them ... feeding is easy ..you just toss the banana tree over the edge and ..hey wizzo ..you can see the elephants trunk catch ,said tree as it falls through space ....
Grammar is dead. Stupid reigns supreme!
@@dereksollows9783 Gramar doesn't exist.
Why are all British aircraft with the exception of the Spitfire and the Concord so unimaginatively ugly.
Mosquito, Sea Fury, Hornet, Sunderland, Lancaster, Lightning, Comet, DN Albatross........................ many many more beauties
@@auldteuchter9012 NA you have low standards. B-17, P38, P40, P51,P80, F86, F104, F106, SR-71, XB70, B58. The only unimaginatively ugly one is the the A1 Sky Radder, the Mosquito flys like Angle , looks like a frog. I have never liked the ascetic of British design. Don't misunderstand me they make really good airplanes but not many ascetically pleasing airplanes.
Yeah ive noticed a lot of the british designs look unusual for a lack of a better word. Soviets whilst making plenty of ugly planes also made many pretty birds. The french too have made several pretty aeroplanes. But the jet age British planes generally seems to look odd.
@@supremegodemperordonaldtru3563 If I didn't know other wise I would say the reason the Concord was so beautiful was influence from the French. That design was mostly British. So they can do it. Its very weird, have you seen the new Tempest???? WOW thats ugly!
I consider the Hawker Hunter a beauty too.
Something Speed Racer would own if he had a plane as well as his race car.