Bristol Freighter The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a British twin - engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner , although its best known use is as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances . Design and development . The Bristol Type 170 was designed to Air Ministry Specifications 22 / 44 and C . 9 / 45 originally as a rugged , heavy - duty transport to operate from unimproved airstrips . After the end of the Second World War the design was adapted by the Bristol Chief Designer A . E . Russell and his design team as a rugged , heavy - duty aircraft . It was an all - metal , twin - engine high - wing monoplane and built without the use of expensive alloys and with a minimum of machined parts . The square - sectioned fuselage was designed to be clear of internal obstructions . The flight deck was high in the fuselage nose , accessed via a ladder . The Freighter was a somewhat bulbous and cumbersome - looking aircraft . Like the more slender prewar Bombay , it was a high - wing monoplane with fixed undercarriage , the main gear legs supported by substantial vertical struts beneath the Bristol Hercules radial engines and horizontally from the lower edge of the ( slab - sided ) fuselage . The cockpit sat atop the forward fuselage , with two large clamshell doors in the nose , making the unpressurised fuselage somewhat breezy ; one Kiwi pilot claimed his charge was " 40 thousand rivets flying in close formation . " The prototype , registered G - AGPV , first flew at Filton on 2 December 1945 ; it was an empty shell without nose doors . Operational history . The second prototype and the first 34 - seat Wayfarer , registered " G - AGVB " , first flew on 30 April 1946 , and began proving flights in the colours of Channel Islands Airways . It carried over 10 , 000 passengers in under six months . The third aircraft , registered " G - AGVC , " was the first Freighter I and had fully operating nose doors . After a number of demonstration flights around the world , the Bristol 170 entered full production . One of the first sales was to the Argentine Air Force , which ordered 15 aircraft . The managing director of Silver City Airways was Wing Commander Griffith James Powell , who realised that he could adapt the Bristol Freighter to fly passengers with their cars from Britain to Continental Europe and Jersey . This " air ferry " would allow Britons on holiday to avoid lengthy waits for the sea ferries . On the 14 July 1948 , the airline made the first flight with a car , from Lympne Airport in Kent to Le Touquet on the northern coast of France . In 1953 , production of the freighter was moved to Weston - super - Mare . An lengthened version , the Freighter 32 , was introduced which featured movable wooden partitions in the cargo compartment . It could be configured to carry either three 14 - foot cars and 20 passengers or two large size American cars and 12 passengers , the passenger seats being in the rear section of the fuselage . Silver City Airways dubbed this variant the " Superfreighter " and subsequently built an airport named " Ferryfield " at Lydd in Kent , beginning air ferry services in 1955 . In the same year , Channel Air Bridge started operations from Southend , with four Bristol Freighters flying to Calais . The last two freighters of the 214 built were delivered in 1958 , one to New Zealand in February and the last aircraft to Dan - Air in March 1958 . The New Zealand aircraft was delivered to SAFE , who eventually operated one of the largest fleets of Freighters . One of the lengthened aircraft , registered G - AMWA , had 60 seats fitted and was known as a Super Wayfarer . Other civil uses . In New Zealand SAFE Air ( Straits Air Freight Express ) moved rail freight from Wellington ( the North Island ) to Blenheim ( the South Island ) and back , using Bristol Freighters , starting in 1951 . The airline later reconfigured its aircraft to accept palletised cargo loaded on patented " cargons . " This was a first anywhere in the aviation world . Cargons were loaded near the rail yards and their load was calculated and arranged to remain within the aircraft ' s load and centre of gravity limits . They were then trucked to the airport and placed on the Freighter using a mechanical loading device . The loader accepted cargons from horizontal - tray road vehicles and then raised them to the level of the aircraft ' s cargo deck on electrically - powered screw - jacks . The pallets could then be rolled into the nose of the aircraft . Other adaptations allowed the carrying of horses and other high - value large animals . Freighters were the major link between the Chatham Islands and mainland New Zealand until Armstrong Whitworth Argosys replaced them . SAFE Air developed a sound proofed ' container ' for the half of the aircraft given over to passengers on these flights . Bristol 170s were still in commercial use with SAFE until the late 1970s . Military uses . In military service , Bristol Freighters were operated by the air forces of Argentina , Australia , Burma , Canada , Iraq , Pakistan and New Zealand . Bristol Freighters were operated briefly by the Pakistan Air Force . After withdrawal , some of the Pakistan aircraft were bought by SAFE Air and used in New Zealand . The Royal Canadian Air Force used five Freighters to carry spares and supplies between the UK and their bases in France and West Germany . The Royal New Zealand Air Force ordered 12 " Mk 31M " Freighters in the late 1940s . RNZAF Freighters ranged as far as supplying the New Zealand Army in Malaya , the British High Commissions ( and other support staff ) in the Maldives , Ceylon , India and Nepal , performing Far East Air Force tasks in Malaya ( often when other aircraft types were unserviceable owing to maintenance problems ) and Hong Kong . They ran a highly reliable military shuttle service for allies in Thailand during the Vietnam War and served several other roles , being adapted for — amongst other things — aerial top dressing experiments , although to avoid competition with private enterprise , the New Zealand government did not use them in that role . Final days . The New Zealand Freighters were retired from military use when replaced by Hawker Siddeley Andover s in the 1970s . After retirement , a number of smaller local operators briefly flew Freighters . Some were exported to Canada . A SAFE Air Freighter is preserved in taxiable condition at Blenheim and another at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch . A third is on display at Founders Historical Park in Nelson , and a fourth is being restored at Ardmore near Auckland . Other Freighter airframes around New Zealand now serve as novelty tea - rooms , backpacker hostels , and motel rooms , such as ex NZ5906 ( c / n 13059 ) in Otorohanga . One Freighter was in service in turn with British Ministry of Supply ( G - AIMI then WB482 ) , the RAAF ( A81 - 1 ) and subsequently went into commercial use in Australia until 1978 after which it went on to become a museum exhibit and was given over to the RAAF museum at Point Cook , Victoria , Australia in 1988 . Bristol freighter Mk 31M G - BISU ( c / n 13218 ) was operated by Instone Airline at Stansted , Essex , UK , for a number of years . This was an ex - RNZAF aircraft and left Ardmore on 2 March 1981 for its 86 - hour ferry flight to the UK , it subsequently flew its first charter flight on 3 August 1981 delivering two racehorses to Deauville . This role of flying livestock was to take up half a year while other work included carriage of oil drilling machinery , car parts , newspapers and mail . Re - registered as " C - FDFC " , in 1996 it crashed on takeoff with the crew escaping but was essentially a write - off . The captain - John Duncan - and co - pilot - Malcolm Cutter - reported that the aircraft entered a severe yaw after takeoff which was uncontrollable despite use of full opposite aileron and rudder control . The last Freighter in service , which flew for Instone Airline then later returned to New Zealand , was bought from surplus by Hawkair in Terrace , British Columbia , Canada . In 2004 , this aircraft undertook its final flight to the Reynolds - Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin , Alberta . An example of the Mark 31M , CF - WAE , ex Royal Canadian Air Force 9699 , is displayed at the Western Canada Aviation Museum . It was last flown by Norcanair . Accidents and incidents . Sixty - eight of the 214 Freighters built were destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair in accidents . At least 45 of these were fatal , resulting in the deaths of at least 385 passengers and crew .