The Bristol Freighter moves across the Conservation Workshop

Tuesday 28th March 2023 - The Bristol Freighter has been stored in Aerospace Bristol’s Conservation Workshop since it was transported here from New Zealand in 2018.

The Freighter had been sat alongside the back wall of the workshop until now, with many other conservation projects surrounding it.

Now, visitors to the workshop can see the Freighter in all it’s glory, standing diagonally across the right hand side of the workshop, and are able to see all the way inside, eventually being able to step aboard.

This move was made in anticipation of the Conservation volunteers fitting the left wing to the Bolingbroke 9048 which would not have been possible with the Bristol Freighter in its previous position.

Designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, the Bristol Type 170 was used both as a freighter and as a passenger airliner, known as the Wayfarer.

The innovatively-designed Freighter had a 108ft wingspan and featured distinctive clamshell doors that allowed cargo – including vehicles and large animals - to be loaded via its nose.

A total of 214 Freighters and Wayfarers were built and delivered to airlines and air forces across the world between 1945 and 1958. 

The Bristol Freighter in Aerospace Bristol’s Conservation workshop is one of only eleven remaining in the world today, and the only one of its kind in Europe.

The Freighter, shown here with its wings removed for the journey, is travelling by road and sea from New Zealand to Filton where it was designed and built.  (Image credit: Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics)