Bristol Types 118 and 120
For a description of the format and data included in Production Tables, see here.
Contents
Type Description
- Type 118
- Two seat general purpose single-bay biplane with staggered and unequal-span wings; roles envisaged included fighter, bomber, army cooperation and casualty transport. The fuselage was of fabric-covered metal construction, the forward fuselage built around steel tubes bolted to high tensile steel plates, while the aft fuselage was of steel strip Warren girder construction. Wire bracing was used only in the centre section; outboard of that was a single streamlined compression strut and a three-strut drag brace on each wing. Frise-type ailerons were fitted only to the upper wings. Rudder and elevators were horn balanced and the tailplane was of cantilever, unbraced form. The undercarriage was divided and attached to the fuselage with streamlined legs and struts. The Jaguar installation left the cylinder heads exposed, but later engines were cowled with a Townend ring. The pilot's cockpit was high and positioned below a cutout in the trailing edge of the upper wing. He had a synchronised .303 in Vickers machine gun mounted in a trough on the port side. The observer's cockpit was behind the pilot, where he could be rear gunner, bomb aimer, photographer or radio operator. For the rear gunner's task there was a .303 in Lewis Gun mounted on a Scarff ring. For bombing and photography, he could reach a prone position with a downward view through windows in the floor. Alternatively this space could hold one person on a stretcher and a second could be carried under the removable rear fuselage decking. Bombs could be carried on external racks. One 590 h.p. supercharged Bristol Jupiter XFA powerplant.
- Type 118A
- Type 118 fitted with a 600 h.p. Bristol Mercury V powerplant and four bladed propeller.
| Type 118 Specification | |||||||||
| Span | Length | Height | Wing Area | Empty Wt | Max AUW | Cruise Speed | Maximum Speed | Range | Service Ceiling |
| 40 ft 8 in | 34 ft | 12 ft | 376 sq ft | 3632 lb | 5200 lb | 165 mph/ 143 kn | 25600 ft | ||
| 12.4 m | 10.36 m | 3.66 m | 34.93 m2 | 1647 kg | 2359 kg | 266 km/h | 7803 m | ||
- Type 120
- Type 118 fitted with a rotatable cupola over the gunner's cockpit, to Air Ministry Specification G.4/31. One 650 h.p. Bristol Pegasus I.M.3 powerplant.
Production Details
| Serial Range | C/n | Type | Batch Qty |
Conv. | Canc'd | Notes |
| 2 aircraft proposed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, Filton, Bristol, Somerset. One built; first flew January 1931. | ||||||
| G-ABEZ | 7561 | Type 118 | 1 | Initially flew under B conditions as R-3. Retained by Bristol. | ||
| 7562 | 1 | Not built; became the Type 120. | ||||
| 1 aircraft converted by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, Filton, Bristol, Somerset, and purchased by the Air Ministry to Contract 174305/32. Delivered in February 1932. | ||||||
| K2873 | (7561) | Type 118A | (1) | Converted from Type 118. Later used as Pegasus PE-5SM testbed. | ||
| 1 aircraft built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, Filton, Bristol, Somerset. First flew January 1932, and later purchased by the Air Ministry to Contract 240081/33. Delivered in April 1933. | ||||||
| K3587 | 7562 | Type 120 | 1 | Initially flew under B conditions as R-6. Airframe originally intended for the second Type 118. | ||
| Total Production | 1 | (1) | ||||
Production Summary
All Aircraft By Type
| Type | Built New | Conv | Canc'd | Total |
| Type 118 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Type 118A | (1) | 1 | ||
| Type 120 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2 | (1) | 1 |
Production References
- Bristol Aircraft Since 1910, C.H. Barnes (Putnam, 1964, 1970 and 1988)
- The K File, The Royal Air Force of the 1930s, J.J. Halley (Air-Britain Publications, 1995)
Page Revision History
Revised at Version 2.0.0- Improved Type Description and Added Specification details.