Blackburn Roc - Design and Development

Design and Development

The Roc was originally to have been fitted with floats, and four floatplane prototypes were built. The first crashed, but modifications made the remaining three flyable, although the concept was not pursued. The first flight by a Roc was on 23 December 1938, however the type quickly became obsolete and enjoyed only a brief service life.

The Roc was a "fighter" development of the Skua dive bomber using the same turret fighter concept as the Boulton Paul Defiant in that its sole armament was four .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in a powered dorsal turret. The reduced firepower (compared to land based fighters such as the Hawker Hurricane) was offset by the ability to direct it in any direction. In practice, the weight of the turret made the Roc even slower than the already slow – for fighter purposes – Skua and it was suggested by the Air Council, even before production started, that it might be better used as an advanced trainer. The Roc eventually found its niche as a dive bomber.

While Blackburn designed the Roc, detail work and all 136 production aircraft were built by Boulton Paul in Wolverhampton alongside the Defiant, and although the two aircraft were different and required separate production lines, they did use the same Boulton Paul turret.