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The Bristol 188 was a high speed research aircraft into the kinetic heating effects on airframes subject to sustained very high speed flight to support the Avro 730 Mach 3 reconnaissance bomber programme. Three prototypes were contracted in 1953 although one was to be used for ground testing only.

The aircraft had an extremely advanced airframe of chromium stainless steel with a honeycomb structure and employed argon puddle welding. This alone took over two years to develop, with considerable support from Armstrong Whitworth (who built much of the airframe). The North American XB-70 Valkyrie used the same materials and welding techniques. A fused quartz windscreen and a cockpit refrigeration system were fitted. The 188 had two de Havilland Gyron Junior engines – a smaller, lightweight version of the new Gyron which was the most powerful jet engine in the world at the time and was to be used in a host of proposed combat aircraft (in the event all cancelled).

The Bristol 188 was designed to fly at Mach 2.6 for over 30 minutes. In the event, the Gyron engines proved thirstier and less powerful than intended and the aircraft tended to leak fuel. Test flights rarely lasted more than 20-25 minutes and the aircraft did not reach its intended maximum speed (only Mach 1.88 was attained) let alone a sustained high speed flight. 70% of its fuel load was required simply to attain its operational height. As a result, the Bristol 188 was, in civilian terms, fuel critical even before it took off! In addition, the engines tended to surge at supersonic speed causing the aircraft to pitch and yaw. Nicknamed ‘the flaming pencil’, the test pilot Godfrey Auty was voted ‘the man most likely to eject in the coming year’ by his fellow test pilots. Luckily, he never did.

To cap it all, the Avro 730 programme, plus another project by Armstrong Whitworth to develop a fighter version of the Bristol 188, and many other projects were cancelled in the infamous 1957 Defence Review when the government decided combat aircraft had been rendered obsolete by guided missiles which would dominate all future wars, one of the most ill-judged predictions ever. This decision was taken before the Bristol 188 even flew! Nonetheless, the Bristol 188 programme continued as a pure research aircraft.

The first prototype was completed in 1960 and first flew in 1962. Even though the programme was terminated only two years later, much useful information was gained in relation to the Bristol Type 223 SST project which in turn fed into Concorde, namely NOT to build it out of chromium stainless steel with argon welding. Concorde used conventional aluminium and did not fly faster than Mach 2.04. Also, lessons learned from the problematical Gyron Junior were fed into the development of the Rolls Royce Olympus engine which powered Concorde and the TSR2.

The preserved aircraft is minus its nosecone, presumably because its spear-like form skewered a few visitors not paying enough attention at the museum.