Blackburn Roc
| Blackburn B-25 Roc | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Blackburn B-25 Roc |
|
| Type: | Fighter plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
December 23, 1938 |
| Commissioning: |
February 1940 |
| Number of pieces: |
166 |
The Blackburn B-25 Roc was a single-engine fighter used by British naval aviators in the early days of World War II . First flight was on December 23, 1938, commissioning in February 1940; a total of 166 copies were built.
History and construction
The Blackburn Roc was developed in parallel to the Blackburn Skua and was built quite conventionally as a two - seater low - wing aircraft with retractable landing gear. The outstanding feature was the electrically operated quadruple machine-gun turret behind the pilot as the only armament. This arrangement corresponded to a rather short-lived fashion in British fighter aircraft construction in the late 1930s: the fighter was supposed to fly next to the bomber to be fought and shoot it from the side. 300 km / h top speed was far too little for this even in the 1930s (the other representative of this concept was the Boulton Paul Defiant ). Boulton Paul was the company that designed the quadruplet tower; all rocs were also built at Boulton Paul. Neither of the two fighters was successful - the massive turret cost too much flight performance and was not very effective. The Roc was only used briefly in its intended role and was quickly "degraded" to a training and towing aircraft . As far as is known, no Roc has ever started from an aircraft carrier ; all aircraft were deployed from land airports.
Four Roc were fitted with floats; in August 1943 the last two aircraft were decommissioned.
Military use
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 2 |
| length | 10.85 m |
| span | 14.02 m |
| height | 3.68 m |
| Wing area | 28.80 m² |
| Wing extension | 6.8 |
| Empty mass | 2778 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 3606 kg |
| drive | 1 × 9-cylinder - radial engine Bristol Perseus XII with 918 hp (675 kW) |
| Top speed | 359 km / h at an altitude of 3050 m |
| Service ceiling | 5485 m altitude |
| Armament | 4 × 7.7 mm MG |
See also
literature
- Eric Brown, CBE, DCS, AFC, RN., William Green, Gordon Swanborough: Blackburn Skua and Roc. In: Wings of the Navy. Flying Allied Carrier Aircraft of World War Two. Jane's Publishing Company, London 1980, ISBN 0-7106-0002-X , pp. 29-40.
- William Green: War Planes of the Second World War. Volume Two. Fighters. Macdonald, London 1961.
- AJ Jackson: Blackburn Aircraft since 1909. Putnam, London 1968, ISBN 0-370-00053-6 .
- Matthew Willis: Blackburn Skua and Roc. Mushroom Model Publications, Redbourn 2007, ISBN 83-89450-44-5 .
