BOULTON PAUL Aircraft Manual PDF

A BOULTON PAUL Aircraft Pilot's Manual PDF is above the page.

The origin of this unusual turret fighter, which suffered a brief moment of glory in 1940, came from the problems that pilots encountered in the late 1920s.

It was about open rifle installations of fighters and bombers, the design of which has not changed much since the First World War. The increase in flight speeds caused a proportional decrease in the percentage of hits on an enemy aircraft from a turret.

Even more worrisome was the appearance of reports from parts concerning the difficulty of controlling weapons at speeds above 150 mph (242 km / h).

In the air stream, it was not easy for the shooters to change stores with frozen fingers. Characteristically, this problem was most acute for the fastest airplanes.

In particular, the Hawk "Demon" and Boulton Paul "Sidestrand" aircraft stood out in the British Air Force.

At the last, there were a number of serious incidents when the front shooter dropped the disc from the Lewis machine gun during reloading and the air stream carried it through the screw, damaging the wooden blades.

For officials who studied these reports, it became apparent that the higher performance of modern aircraft can only be fully used when the shooters get some protection from the oncoming traffic.

Therefore, Boulton Paul received a contract on August 13, 1932 to study the possibility of creating cover for the front shooting point of the Sidestrand bomber, the fourth modification of which was at the design stage.

Around the same time, other firms independently addressed this issue.