Bristol Pullman

The Bristol Pullman was a British prototype passenger aircraft developed directly from the Braemar triplane heavy bomber in the early years of civil air transport. The third prototype Braemar was completed as the Pullman, the only one ever built, and it first flew in early May 1920 as the Type 26. It was designed to carry 14 passengers and was powered by four Liberty L-12 engines arranged in two tandem nacelles, with pusher and tractor propellers, giving a top speed of about 217 km/h. It was shown at the International Aero Show at Olympia in July 1920, where its great size and interior fittings were widely admired. It was one of the earliest British aircraft with a fully enclosed crew cabin, a feature disliked by service pilots, some of whom carried fireman axes so that they could escape in an emergency. The Royal Air Force did not take it into squadron use and no civil operator selected it. A much larger 40-passenger Pullman 40 was proposed, to be driven from a central engine room, and a smaller testbed for that idea was built as the Tramp.