AIRCRAFTS THAT DID NOT WORK OUT
Some aeronautical projects emerge with the ambitions of breaking paradigms and revolutionizing the segment, others have only the purpose of entering some market niche in a profitable way. Military projects often try to surpass their rivals or to meet a specific demand. However, not rarely, a project fails because it does not meet some specification, because of being too much ahead of its time, because having being wrongly conducted, or even due to political pressures. Here we bring together some of these programs that were remembered because of their failures.
BRISTOL 188
It never achieved the intended speed
Bristol 188 emerged just as a study to verify the viability of supersonic flights above Mach 2 for longer test periods. The program was created to deliver vital data to the Avro 730 project, which included a strategic reconnaissance aircraft and a supersonic bomber.
In the 50s, the British intended to keep the leading position of the aeronautical development by creating a series of fairly audacious projects for the period. The goal was not only to maintain the technological independence of the country in a strategic sector but, above all, to dispute the technological leadership with the United States, the Soviet Union and France.
The Bristol 188 requirements were fairly complex for the time, demanding studies of kinetic heating in supersonic flights and the viability of flying above Mach 2 for longer periods. Aerodynamically, the aircraft had the most recent studies existing until then; also the engines mounted on the wings were fairly promising for flights above a speed range twice higher than sound speed.
The aircraft construction, however, demanded the use of new materials that could undoubtedly support the very high temperatures at flight. With this, austenitic titanium-stabilized steel and chrome steel were used at that time in
