The Most Luxurious Plane We’ve Never Heard Of

Targeted at the rich, the beautiful aircraft had its maiden flight in 1949, just four years after WW2.

Imagine a double-decker aircraft with wings wider than a Boeing 747, sleeping berths, a sit-down restaurant and a separate movie theater, all designed to serve and pamper its passengers while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Such a plane was actually built in 1949, but it was never adopted by the airlines. Built not by Boeing and long before Airbus even existed, the Brabazon was the creation of the UK company Bristol (and named after the government committee that dictated its specifications), a company best known for its heavy bombers in the Second World War. But, the Brabazon’s design was inspired more by cruise ships than aircraft.

Before the advent of commercial air travel, ocean liners carried virtually all transatlantic passengers.

Catering to well-healed passengers who’d otherwise opt for a luxury sea voyage, this beast was designed to pamper, not provide low-cost travel. And pamper it could, with private sleeping compartments featuring actual beds (not just lie-flat seats) and a sit-down restaurant with a kitchen for preparing real meals aloft. Continuing aft there was a cocktail bar for pre-dinner drinks and at the rear of the plane, a 23-seat movie theater. The Brabazon had a fully pressurized cabin complete with air conditioning. It was so powerful that, despite weighing 130 tons (vs 200 tons for a 747), it could fly non-stop from London to New York even against the prevailing winds. That was an impressive feat given that most flights going west, back then, had to stop for refueling at Gander in Newfoundland.

About 10,000 spectators watched the Brabazon take flight, reaching 3,000' and 160 miles per hour.

One of the most ambitious postwar aviation projects in Britain was introduced to the world on September 4, 1949, when crowds gathered at Filton Aerodrome near Bristol to watch this first jumbo take to the air for the very first time. The colossal Bristol Brabazon airliner was built to show that Britain could lead the world in civil aviation after the Second World War. With a wingspan of 230 feet and powered by eight Bristol Centaurus Radial Engines driving paired contra-rotating propellers, the Brabazon looked every inch the giant of its age. Its first flight, lasting about 25 minutes, was smooth and successful, and hopes were high that the project would restore British prestige in the skies.

Sleeping berths equipped with real beds set the Bristol Brabazon apart from any aerial competitors.

The Brabazon was remarkable for its innovations. Its pressurized fuselage was designed for transatlantic comfort, with space for just over 100 passengers spread across lounges, dining rooms, and even sleeping berths. The enormous wing was strong enough to contain a full-sized passageway, allowing engineers to service engines in flight. Its flight deck was fitted with advanced instrumentation for long-range cruising, and its design placed passenger comfort on a par with technical performance. In an era when many airlines still flew wartime conversions, the Brabazon’s vision of quiet, spacious, luxurious air travel seemed decades ahead of its time.

BOAC was the first to enter commercial service with the Comet and was one of its main operators.

Although the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) had been collaborating with Bristol on the Brabazon’s design, even they weren’t interested in the new plane. One reason was the birth of the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jetliner, which took its inaugural test flight just two months before the Brabazon. The Comet could carry about 40 seated passengers in its initial variant at a smoother 42,000 feet and a much faster 400 miles per hour. Unfortunately, the aircraft suffered a series of three fatal accidents due to structural failures and it was eventually withdrawn from service in 1954. However, the Comet paved the way for successful jet airliners of the future, including the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8. 

An artist's rendering of the cocktail lounge showed luxury planned in every detail of the Bristol aircraft.

The Brabazon was conceived for the super-rich who expected luxury meals, bedding and a movie on their cruise ship in the sky. Yet this very ambition proved its undoing. The Brabazon was conceived for a market that didn’t exist. Airlines in the late 1940s wanted practical aircraft that could carry large numbers of passengers economically, not luxurious airborne cruise liners with lounges and writing desks. Though the plane dazzled crowds at the Farnborough and Paris Air Shows, there were simply no aircraft orders. The postwar period in Europe was undoubtedly a time when most people couldn’t afford a car, let alone the expense of a luxury transatlantic flight. The rise of the pressurized Douglas DC-6 and the Lockheed Constellation, followed quickly by the coming "jet age.”  meant that speed, efficiency, and operating costs mattered far more to carriers than luxury. The Brabazon never attracted one single airline order. Despite the successful first flight and extensive trials, the program was canceled in 1953 after costing tens of millions of pounds and the single prototype was eventually scrapped.

The Bristol Company was involved in the early supersonic designs that led to the Concorde.

Although the Brabazon failed as a commercial airliner, it left an important legacy for the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The enormous assembly halls built at Filton for the doomed project later became the cradle for other advanced aircraft, including the turboprop Bristol Britannia and eventually the supersonic Concorde itself, which also had strong Bristol connections. The Company shifted focus to military and civil transports, to missile development, and later became part of the British Aircraft Corporation, which merged into Airbus, today’s successful European commercial aircraft manufacturer. 

Seventy-six years after its first flight, the Brabazon is remembered as a bold, but misguided attempt to leap into the future of aviation. It embodied a vision of grandeur and luxury that misread the needs of airlines, yet its advanced engineering and the infrastructure it created paved the way for Britain to contribute to some of the most significant aircraft of the Twentieth Century.

Until next time...safe travels.