Design and Development
In early 1939 Bristol suggested a bomber variant of the Beaufighter with their Hercules engines. British policy at the time was for medium bombers to be provided from the US allowing British industry to concentrate on heavy bomber designs but a design was requested preferably based on an existing design which effectively meant working with the Beaufighter or Beaufort. Bristol worked on their design first as the Bristol Type 161 then the Type 162 Beaumont.
Air Ministry specification B.7/40 called for a medium bomber to replace the Blenheim. The specification stipulated a speed of at least 300 mph with a normal load of 1,000 lb of bombs and a turret armed with at least two machine guns of 0.50 inch calibre. Only one manufacturer tendered a full design, but it did not meet with approval. Bristol then brought their Type 162 to the Air Staff, which was fortunately well matched to B.7/40 and which led to a request for a completed mock-up and then a contract for three prototypes in late 1940. The Beaumont was based on the rear fuselage and tail of a Beaufighter with a new centre and front fuselage. The armament was a mid-upper turret with four machine guns, four more machine guns firing forward and two firing to the rear.
Construction began in late 1940, with a new Air Ministry Specification B.2/41 to be written around it. However changes in the requirements - removing dive bombing and "direct army support" which incoming US bombers were expected to be capable of - and increasing the performance requirement to allow for the future meant the Beaumont would no longer suffice. The changes in performance (requiring a bomb load of 4,000 lb, a speed of 360 mph and a range of 1,600 miles) meant a redesign by Bristol to use the Bristol Centaurus engine.
The Bristol redesign with a larger wing and the more powerful engines was the Type 163 Buckingham. It had gun installations in the nose, dorsal and ventral turrets. Generally conventional in appearance, one unusual feature was that the bomb-aimer/navigator was housed in a mid-fuselage ventral gondola. this was part of an attempt to give all the crew positions unobstructed views and access to each other's positions. The bomb bay could hold a single 4,000 lb, two 2,000 lb, four 1,000 lb or six 500-lb bombs. The rear of the gondola had a hydraulically powered turret with two 0.303 Browning machine guns. The dorsal turret of Bristol's own design carried four Brownings. A further four fixed, forward-firing Brownings were controlled by the pilot.
Following more changes specification B.2/41 was subsequently replaced with B.P/41. The first flight took place on 4 February 1943. During testing, the Buckingham exhibited poor stability which necessitated the enlargement of the twin tails, along with other modifications.
Read more about this topic: Bristol Buckingham
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