Ex RAF Loadmaster - 5000hrs on 252 and 253 series.
Many round the world trips. A good aircraft to work with.
Unservoceable stops included!!!!! Queen of the skies.

I think I flew on this aircraft when I emigrated to Australia in 1966 travelling alone. June I think. Not very pleasant memories. We struggled to land in Abadan, Persia (then) due to a prop failure. Stuck there for 2 days while they flew parts out from Heathrow. Pilot then had a heart attack just before takeoff possibly due to the stress of landing the plane we were told. Eventually we resumed our journey via Colombo, Singapore, Darwin and finally Melbourne. I had an onward flight to Adelaide arriving 3 days late.

Another Changi to Brize experience. Flew out in a "10" and back in the Brit. 34 hours and four legs of 7/7.5 hours with 90 minutes turnarounds in Gan, Muharraq, and Akrotiri. I thought I was never going to get there. Wonderful sight and sound but boy, was I ever pleased to see Oxfordshire at last

Another Changi to Brize experience. Flew out in a "10" and back in the Brit. 34 hours and four legs of 7/7.5 hours with 90 minutes turnarounds in Gan, Muharraq, and Akrotiri. I thought I was never going to get there. Wonderful sight and sound but boy, was I ever pleased to see Oxfordshire at last

From a passenger's perspective I rate this as one of the least comfortable aircraft I've ever flown in. Vibration - this was incessant and pervasive, an engineering friend tells me that this must have been due to the prop. tips being allowed to over speed, if so it totally negated the benefits conferred by the turboprops. Carrier - BOAC, journey - Accra/Heathrow.

The "Whispering Giant" was so quiet, flew from Sydney via Nadi, Honlulu, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal to Amsterdam for Canadian Pacific Airlnes. The base engeneer in Montreal arranged sails over the wing to save on glycol in the winter. The plane had trouble starting, till the engeneer kicked the electrical panel and then the engines performed beautifully.

I flew in one of these as an eleven year old from Bahrain to Heathrow, I travelled alone. We stopped at Beirut (then in crisis and crawling with MIGs) and Rome (I think) It took over thirty hours.

I well remember, as a child in north London, seeing this beautiful aircraft in BOAC colours, crossing from Brookmans Park, overflying the North Circular Road on it's way into Heathrow. We'd run into the garden just to see it! Oh, happy days! Now, large aircraft are like cars - they all look alike!

Does anyone have, please...schedules of the BOAC Britannia 102 services to Australia...enroute stops, timings etc? Thanks in advance. John Mathews

The first version of the Britannia had Bristol Centaurus engines. Does anybody know what happened to these piston aircrafts?

My father was in the RAF. I know the flight to Singapore took 3 days in the mid-sixties - but can't remember where we stopped off - any ideas?

I flew as a passenger in "The Whispering Giant" three times between 1963 and 1966, in her British Eagle livery, to and from R.A.F Akrotiri, Cyprus and to Paya Lebar, Singapore. She was a great passenger aircraft.

I flew on this aircraft with BOAC to Australia, in 1958 with my mother and two sisters and baby brother. We were to join my father, an RAF officer, on his posting at RAAF Edinburgh Fields, near Adelaide. My mother, now aged 88yrs, remembers taking 16 (!)pieces of luggage. Due to my young siblings we were the first to disembark at each stop, in the care of one of the air hostesses. We were usually whisked to a baby facility with a nurse or Amah to help my mother and had our meals in, what seemed to me, luxurious airport restaurants. Our trip was supposed to last approx two days, but because of an engine fault after taking off from Beirut, we had to return and spent two or three days in a hotel there waiting for a spare part to be flown out. My baby brother then developed prickly heat which was misdiagnosed at Singapore as measles, and the pilot refused to take him any further. We stayed in at RAF Changi for two weeks(!) before being rescued by Quantas to make our onward journey. But no air journey for me has since has ever matched the simple luxury of the flight and the in-flight and air-side passenger facilities (OK no films!).

This was a definate improvement on the "Brab", nowhere near as noisy & the house did'nt suffer as much!!
In later years I joined the RAF, & flew many miles in the Britannia, also working on them in Trasport command.

Att Mark Jones
Could you contact me at johnmannion@ozemail.com.au re flight to Australia as migrant in 1960s please?

I flew on this aircraft 40 years ago with my family when we emigrated to Australia. It was a British Eagle chartered by Qantas. I still have the ticket and booklet.
We flew from Heathrow to Kuwait, Kuwait to Colombo (in what was still called Ceylon), Colombo to Singapore, Singapore to Darwin and finally Darwin to Melbourne. Each stop was for an hour only (for refuelling) and took two and a half days. I remember we flew at 17,500ft. most of the way averaging about 385mph!

While serving in the Royal Navy,I was lucky enough to fly on an RAF Brit from England to Malta.It was quiet and comfortable and on a journey this far,it did not take much longer than a jet.With the lastest views on global warming could this be the way to go to save the planet?

I flew on this aircraft to and from London to Singapore in the mid 1960's. A beautiful aircraft but, of course, slow compared with modern jet aircraft. This aircraft was known as "The Whispering Giant" because it was large and very quiet compared to other aircraft.