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Annex "E" to Historical Report
The B-170 MK 31 Bristol Freighters which were retired at an official ceremony by Air Marshal FR Sharp, Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, on 27 November, 1966 have served the RCAF for fourteen years. From the time they joined Canada's forces with NATO in October, 1952 until the last scheduled flight was made by a Bristol, when Bristol 9699 flew to Decimomannu and back on 27/28 October, 1966, they have chalked up a combined total of 32,092 hours in the air.
The early history of the RCAF Bristols is somewhat difficult to trace. Written records are scarce and most information has been gleaned from officers and airmen (notably F/L Dunham, Cpl V Hughes and FS AW McLeod, all of 1 Wing Marville) who worked with the aircraft when it first came into service and since. The records of the British Aircraft Corporation which now includes the Bristol Aeroplane Company show that the first B-170 MK 31's rolled off the production lines in April, 1951. According to FS AW McLeod who was one of the first crewmen on the Bristol, the RCAF made its first purchase of the aircraft in November of that year with the intention of employing it in Europe to supply Canadian bases on the continent from the supply depot at 30 AMB, Langar, Notts. RCAF pilots were trained to fly the aircraft at Bristol and during the winter of 1951/52 three of them (9696, 9697, and 9698) were flown to Canada for modifications. The three aircraft were given new radios, revised instrumentation and a superior heating system in Edmonton. Letters and messages on file with 109KU maintenance records reflect the formation of 137(T) Flight at Edmonton with at least two of the Bristols (9699 and 9697) during the summer of 1952. Cpl ET Svendsen of Marville recalls that one of the Bristols spent some time at Dorval where it was probably used by the transport OTU to train aircrews before they proceeded overseas.
In October, 1952 the three Bristols re-crossed the North Atlantic and 137 (T) Flight established itself at Langar. S/L AC Drolet, the now retired Engineering Officer who was with 137 (T) Flight at its formation, recalls that two more Bristols (9699 and 9700) joined them directly from Bristol shortly after the Flight's arrival at Langar. With their spanking new compliment of five Bristols, 137 (T) Flight ferried freight from 30 AMB to the RCAF Wings in France and Germany. With the opening of the air gunnery school at Rabat, Morocco, in 1953 the Bristols were involved along with North Stars in flying groundcrews and maintence equipment and supplies to Africa. The great virtue of the Bristol is its ability to handle bulky freight and it would sometimes be called upon to haul an entire Sabre neatly folded without its engine or just the engine itself from Rabat or the Wings to Scottish Aviation at Prestwick for repairs. When the Air Weapons Unit left Rabat and moved to Decimomannu on Sardinia in 1957 the Bristols carried on the same service to "Deci". In December, 1955 Bristol 9696 crashed on final approach into Marville. It was replaced by Bristol 9850.
In the early 1960's when the changing military situation rendered invalid the concept of supplying the Wings from a relatively, tactically immune depot across the Channel in the UK, supplies were no longer routed through Langar. Instead they were flown direct from Canada to 1 Wing, Marville for delivery to the other Wings. This obviated the need for Bristols based in the UK and consequently 137 (T) Flight was moved to the continent. It went first to 2 Wing at Grostenquin where it was amalgamated in August, 1963 with the ten Dakotas of 109 Communications Flight to form our present transport Unit, 109 Composite Unit, so named to reflect its use of two types of aircraft. In December, 1963 a second Bristol, number 9697, crashed very close to where the former Bristol had gone in on final approach into Marville. No replacement was purchased. Shortly after that in March, 1964 Marville became the home of 109 KU and the four Bristols which were retired on 27 November. Since their arrival in Marville, they have flown their two scheduled routes, one South to Decimomannu and sometimes over to Pisa and the other North to Prestwick and Gatwick, without incident. Besides carrying freight and passengers it continued to be useful after the replacement of the Sabre by the CF-104 due to its ability to carry bulky CF-104 engines.
Information about the Bristol 170 itself has been easier to find than record of its past in the RCAF. According to Taylor: War Planes of the World, 1966 and the Observer's World Aircraft Directory, 1961 a total of 214 Mk 31's were made and although designed as a military transport and used by the RAAF, the RNZAF, the RCAF, (no longer) and the air forces of Argentina, Burma, Iraq and Pakistan (which bought 73), some 64 are currently in service with civilian airlines. The aircraft is powered by two 1,980 bhp Bristol Hercules 734 radial engines and cruises with a TAS of 150 knots. It weighs 25,547 lbs empty and 44,000 lbs fully loaded. Except in extremely hot weather, this would permit a 5,000 lb payload or, for instance, a CF-104 engine to be flown non-stop from Marville to Decimomannu or to Prestwick. When configured to carry passengers in rear-facing seats the Bristol carries 34 passengers without baggage or 28 with baggage.
It is a sad farewell to an aircraft which has been so much a part of the RCAF's transport operations in Europe over the past fourteen years. If the figures for air haulage in 1965 are extrapolated over this period it indicates that during 32,000-odd hours of flying the Bristols airlifted some 10,626 tons of freight and baggage and 25,690 passengers. They have had four homes with the RCAF at Edmonton, Langar, Grostenquin and finally Marville and their operations besides carrying them to Canada for modifications have seen them as far afield as Egypt and Turkey in the South and Norway in the North. With the Hercules on detachment from 435 Squadron replacing the Bristols at Marville, they can relax into honourable retirement and rest on their undercarriage that never would retract.......whoops, laurels.