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Boulton Paul P.92

1937 WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

The story of Bolton Paul page 92

On the eve of the war with Germany in the 1930s, Britain began investing in defensive combat platforms capable of intercepting and destroying waves of enemy bombers expected to pass through the strait. In May 1937, Specification F. 11/37 was drawn up for this purpose, in which several "power actors" in British defence submitted proposals.

Boulton Paul has received an order from the Royal Air Force (RAF) for his "Turret" Resistance Fighter (described in detail elsewhere on this site), and was accepted to submit his "P. Selected 92" project.

RAF authorities put some requirements on the design, namely a minimum top speed of 370 mph and a maximum service cap of 35,000 feet. The armament would be a centralized battery of 4 x 20mm guns, providing enough firepower for the bombers of the time.

The original promise was to build two airworthy prototypes with different engine configurations: one powered by a Rolls-Royce "Condor II" and another powered by a Napier "Sabre I". To achieve the required performance and weapon capabilities, a twin-engine layout was chosen.

The crew will be number two, a pilot and a dedicated gunner, behind him operating an electric turret with an automatic cannon.

A model was completed in May 1938, and this review forced some modifications to Bolton's proposed heavy fighter. Wind tunnel testing began in November to demonstrate all aspects of its aerodynamic sound. The overall design is a bit traditional, with the cockpit sitting behind a short nose. Each engine is mounted on the leading edge of a straight-wing mainline aircraft, and the fuselage usually tapers aft. The tail has a circular vertical fin and low-mounted horizontal plane.

The tail-trailer landing gear will be used for ground operations. Long and skinny, the P.92 has the air of a very advanced-looking aircraft.

Probably the most notable feature of the P.92 is the location of the oversized circular turret machined into the center of the aircraft (where the two main aircraft are joined at the fuselage spine). The turret stance is well contoured and promotes good aerodynamics by helping reduce drag.

However, this was not the case, as tests showed that when the turret was rotated or the gun was raised above a certain level, the turret developed a lot of drag.

The P.92 was discontinued in May 1940 due to the difficulty of resolving several key problems with the installation of such turrets on high-speed aircraft (and ongoing problems with the proposed Condor engine), and construction of the prototype barely started.

Engineers estimate their P.92 has a top speed of 384 mph with a service ceiling of nearly 38,000 feet. The climb rate is 3,220 feet per minute. Dimensions include an overall length of 54.3 feet and a wingspan of 62.5 feet.

The Rolls-Royce Vulture II engine made 1,760 hp (these drive the three-bladed propeller unit).

However, despite the cancellation of P. 92, the Air Force allowed slightly longer maturation of the second prototype, and for this part of the program, the scale model P. 92. 2 (half size 27.

5 x 33 x 7 , 6ft) The test plane was built by Heston Aircraft (Boulton Paul was busy building it for the war effort). Notable are the fixed, painted main landing gear legs and 2 130 hp (each) de Havilland "Gypsy Major II" engines (driving the twin-blade propellers).

To simulate the flight dynamics of the proposed turret placement, a virtual turret was installed on the central wing section. Construction is mostly wood (plywood) to keep it relatively economical and easy to repair. The first flight was recorded in early 1941, but more in-depth testing at Boscombe Down was not carried out until mid-1943. The test pilots did not rate certain intrinsic qualities of the design highly, but considered the handling to be quite good.

These trials reached a top speed of 155 miles per hour.

Apart from a few additional flights by the company with prototypes, the P.92.2 had nowhere to go to advance a viable combat form. The F. 11/37 norm stalled at this point and was ultimately not revisited as the war drew attention to other programs and operations.

Then, the lone demonstrator was deliberately burned down sometime in the 1950s, ending its test life entirely.