Design and Development
The Overstrand was essentially an upgrade of Boulton & Paul's Sidestrand which had first flown in 1928 and like the Sidestrand was named for a village in Norfolk, home also of Boulton Paul's Norwich factory. The Sidestrand was similar to its First World War predecessors in that it had open cockpits and hand-operated defensive machine guns. However, unlike its predecessors, the Sidestrand could fly at 140 mph (225 km/h) making operating the exposed gun positions difficult, particularly in the aircraft's nose.
To overcome this problem, the Overstrand was fitted with an enclosed and powered nose turret mounting a single Lewis gun. As such the Overstrand was the first RAF aircraft to have a power-operated turret. Rotation was handled by pneumatic motors while elevation and depression of the gun used hydraulic rams. The pilot's cockpit was also enclosed but the dorsal and ventral gun positions remained open, though shielded.
Read more about this topic: Boulton & Paul Overstrand
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