Bristol Britannia free floating controls

[b377]

For those of you savvy about this airplane should I presume this means floating ailerons only or rudder & elevators as well?

I've read about alarmed warnings given to BB pilots while taxiing about ailerons 'hanging' yet I've never seen pictures of the Britannia with limp controls on the ground.

Any pictures showing the free floating controls hanging would be interesting to see.

[India Four Two]

b377,

There's a very good description of the flying controls in this Flight article: bristol britannia | 1955 | 1111 | Flight Archive (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1955/1955%20-%201111.html)

If I remember correctly from my Britannia flightdeck ride, the control locks were only taken out just before takeoff.

Where's brakedwell when you need him?

Incidentally, there's a reference to your namesake's flight deck in the article :)

[b377]

Thanks I42 , it certainly answered a few questions that article.

Interesting in particular that it was possible to test empennage controls by reving up the inner two engines to create the necessary air flow, while sufficient taxiing speed allowed aileron checks on the ground!!

Yes the b377 flight deck spaciousness was hard to improve on... :ok:

[brakedwell]

All the control surfaces were free floating.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/ScreenShot2012-12-28at102900.png

[evansb]

Free-floating indeed. Our Canadair CP-107 Argus shared many components with the Bristol Britannia, free-floating ailerons being one of them. Look closely at the photo and you can see both port and starboard ailerons in the down position.
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/348/arguscp107panoramasmall.jpg

[b377]

Excellent & clear instructions there brakedwell, and nice picture evansb.

I can only guess what an anti-float spring does to cause the controls droop ( rather than gravity) though the Flight article suggested by India 42 mentions fast taxiing into the wind as a way to test ailerons, perhaps that method was abandoned or not always feasible to perform in a busy airport.

[Fareastdriver]

One of our squadron pilots was tour-ex in Changi and was in a Brittania for his flight back to the UK. It was the normal scheduled families aircraft full of similiarly tour-ex personnel and their families. During the take-off roll he noticed that both airlerons wre hanging down so without further ado he stood up and shouted to the loadmasters that there was something seriously wrong with the aircraft. This was communicated to the cockpit so they abandoned the take off at a fairly late stage.

When the dust had settled he was debriefed fairly firmly by the captain who refused to take him the next day after the full mainwheel tyre change that was required. This attitude was backed up by the station commander so he had to wait even longer for another aircraft.

He ended up on Harriers. They don't used ailerons at certain stages of flight either.