Boulton Paul Aircraft

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Boulton Paul Aircraft Limited

Industry	Aerospace, engineering
Predecessor	Boulton Paul aircraft division
Founded	1918
Defunct	1961
Fate	Acquired by Dowty Group.
Headquarters	Wolverhampton, UK
Key people	John Dudley North

Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd was a British aircraft manufacturer that was incorporated in 1934, although its origins in aircraft manufacturing began earlier in 1914 and lasted until 1961. The company mainly built and modified aircraft under contract to other manufacturers, but had a few notable designs of its own, such as the Defiant fighter and the Balliol trainer.

The company's origins date back to an ironmonger's shop founded in 1797 in Norwich. By the early 1900s, Boulton & Paul Ltd was a successful general manufacturing firm with a construction engineering division. It began building aircraft under contract during the First World War before moving into designing and building its own aircraft.

The aircraft building business was sold off - at a low point in the aviation market - from the main construction business in 1934 and then moved to Wolverhampton under its new name Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd in 1936 to take advantage of skilled local workforce and local government incentives.

By 1961 Boulton Paul Aircraft was a manufacturer of aircraft equipment rather than aircraft, it merged with the Dowty Group.

History

Boulton & Paul started its construction engineering division in 1905.^{[1][page needed]}

In 1915, Boulton & Paul began to construct aircraft under contract, including 550 of the

After World War I, Boulton & Paul made their mark with the introduction of powered and enclosed defensive machine gun turrets for bombers. Their Sidestrand twin-engined biplane bomber, which could fly at 140 mph (230 km/h), had an exposed nose turret which was clearly inadequate. The subsequent Overstrand bomber featured the world's first enclosed, power-operated turret, mounting a single Lewis gun and propelled by compressed air. The company licensed a French design of an electro-hydraulic four-gun turret which became a major feature of their future production. In addition to fitting turrets to bombers, Boulton Paul was to install them in fighters.

During this period Boulton & Paul continued to operate outside the aircraft industry as well. They manufactured equipment such as

In 1934, Boulton & Paul sold their "Aircraft Department" which became Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd. Over the next couple of years a new factory site was built up in

Boulton Paul also built the Fairey Barracuda and did conversions of the Vickers Wellington. The only post-war design was the Balliol advanced trainer, of which 229 were built, including 30 as the Sea Balliol deck-landing trainer.

In the

• Boulton Paul Bobolink 1918
• Boulton Paul Bourges 1918
• Boulton Paul P-6
  1918
• Boulton Paul Atlantic 1919
• Boulton Paul P.9 1919
• Boulton Paul P.10 1919
• Boulton Paul Bolton 1922
• Boulton & Paul Bugle
  1923
• Boulton Paul Bodmin 1924
• Boulton Paul Sidestrand 1926 – bomber
• Boulton Paul Bittern 1927 – night fighter with upward firing guns
• Boulton Paul Partridge 1928 – fighter
• Boulton Paul Phoenix 1929 – low cost aeroplane for personal use
• Boulton Paul P.32 1931 – bomber, not accepted for service
• Boulton Paul Overstrand 1933 – bomber
• Boulton Paul P.64 Mail-Carrier 1933
• Boulton Paul P.71A 1934 – transport derivative of the Mailplane
• Boulton Paul Defiant 1937 – turret fighter
• Boulton Paul P.90 Proposal for a four-engined bomber, to meet Specification B.12/36. Not built.
• Boulton Paul P.92 1941 – fighter/ground attack
• Boulton Paul P.98/P.100 1942 – proposed canard-pushprop design
• Boulton Paul Balliol 1947 – trainer
• Boulton Paul P.111 1950 – delta wing research
• Boulton Paul P.112 1950s – proposed three seat training aircraft, not built
• Boulton Paul P.116 1950s – proposed two seat training aircraft, not built
• Boulton Paul P.117 wing controlled aerodyne
• Boulton Paul P.120 1952 – delta wing research
• Boulton Paul P.130 proposed VTOL aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.132 proposed VTOL aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.134 proposed VTOL aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.135 proposed VTOL aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.136 proposed VTOL aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.137 VTOL research aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.140 proposed VTOL airliner
• Boulton Paul P.141 proposed VTOL airliner
• Boulton Paul P.142 VTOL research aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.143 proposed VTOL airliner
• Boulton Paul P.145 proposed VTOL twin-boom aircraft
• Boulton Paul P.146 proposed VTOL airliner

Production of other aircraft

• Blackburn Roc - 136
• Fairey Barracuda Mk II - 300^[4]
• Fairey Barracuda Mk III - 392^[4]

Missiles

• UB.109T – Company designation Boulton-Paul P.123 .

Boulton Paul gun turrets

Boulton Paul was one of the two main innovators of gun turret designs for British aircraft^[a], along with Nash & Thompson; they supplied large numbers of installations for British aircraft. Boulton Paul's designs were largely based on originals licensed from the French company Société d'Applications des Machines Motrices [fr] (SAMM), while Nash & Thompson designs originated from the firm's co-founder, Archibald Frazer-Nash (and were known by FN designations)^{[citation needed]} Boulton Paul's turrets were electro-hydraulic in operation; electric motors located in the turret drove hydraulic pumps that powered hydraulic motors and rams. This was more effective than electric motors alone, and did not require hydraulic power developed by pumps on the aircraft's engines system utilized by the Nash & Thompson design. Production was transferred to Joseph Lucas Ltd.

Turret models:^[5]

• Type A
  • Mark II Used on Boulton Paul Defiant (D) and Blackburn Roc (R)
  • Mark VIII Four gun or two gun turret, dorsal on Handley Page Halifax
  • Also used on Lockheed Ventura, and for converting Short C and G class flying boats
• Type B
• Type C
  • Mark I, two guns used as nose turret on Halifax
  • Mark II, two guns used as dorsal turret on Halifax
  • Used on Lockheed Hudson
• Type D
  • Two 0.5-in (12.7 mm) guns
  • Used on some Avro Lincoln as tail turret, some fitted with Automatic Gun-Laying Turret radar equipment
• Type E
  • Four .303 (7.7 mm) gun rear turret used on Halifax and some versions of Consolidated B-24 Liberator
• Type K
  • Ventral design, two gun retractable used on Halifax
• Type N
  • Nose design for Lincoln
• Type R
  • Ventral, two .303 (7.7 mm) guns with periscope sighting

See also

• Mann Egerton
• Matthew Boulton
• Matthew Robinson Boulton

Related lists

• List of aircraft manufacturers

Notes

References

Citations