The Bristol Brabazon was projected during WW2 by the second Brabazon Committee as a transatlantic airliner for BOAC. If it had entered production, it would have carried 80-100 passengers non-stop from London to New York. It was a huge aircraft, even by modern stadards, and was powered by eight Bristol Centaurus radial engines, coupled in pairs to drive four big, contra-rotating propellers.
The Brabazon was a very ambitious project. A new assembly hall was built at Filton, and the runway was extended to enable the Brabazon to take off. When the first prototype G-AGPW first flew in 1949, it was already doubtful if the Brabazon would be able to compete with the much smaller, but faster and more economical, propliners like the Douglas DC-6 and the Lockheed Constellation. A planned Mk 2 with turboprop engines was never built, and the sole prototype was broken up in 1953 after three years of flight-testing. It was never attempted to cross the Atlantic with the prototype. The Brabazon Hangars at Filton were later used for Concorde production.
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