Blackburn Firecrest

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Blackburn B-48 Firecrest
Firecrest protoype VF172
Type Strike fighter
Manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft
Designed by G. E. Petty
Maiden flight 1947-04-01
Primary user Fleet Air Arm
Produced 1947
Number built 3

The Blackburn B-48 Firecrest or YA.1 was a single-engined naval strike fighter built by Blackburn Aircraft. It was a development of the troublesome B-35 Firebrand. It was designed to Air Minsitry Specification S.28/43, for an improved Firebrand more suited to carrier operations.

Contents

[edit] Design

Operational experience had found that Blackburn's Firebrand strike fighter to be far from suited to carrier operations. Particularly, the pilot sat behind the wing trailing edge, looking over a very long and wide nose, which gave a particularly poor view for landing. The Firecrest had a redesigned, inverted gull wing and moved the pilot forwards and raised his position so that he was now looking over the leading edge, and down the nose, rather than along it. Four Fowler flaps were fitted to give good low-speed handling for landing and the wing had retractable dive brakes on both surfaces. The wing folded in two places to allow storage in carrier hangars. In other respects, the Firecrest was a conventional monoplane design with a tailwheel undercarriage and particularly clean lines.

Despite a promising performance, the Firecrest project was abandoned in 1948 as existing types would fill its role satisfactorily until the new generation of turbine-powered aircraft entered service.

[edit] Specifications

General characteristics

  • Crew: One pilot
  • Length: 39.37 ft (12.0 m)
  • Wingspan: 44.94 ft (13.7 m)
  • Height: 14.57 ft (4.44m)
  • Wing area: 361 ft² (33.58 m²)
  • Empty weight: 10,522 lb (4,773 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 15,183 lb (6,887 kg)
  • Powerplant:Bristol Centaurus 59 18-cylinder radial engine, 2,473 hp (1,844 kW)

Performance

Armament

  • Guns:20 mm Hispano Mk.II cannon, two in each wing
  • Bombs:
    • 1× 1,850 lb (840 kg) torpedo, or
    • 2× 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs, one under each wing, in place of torpedo

[edit] References

  • Fly Navy; Aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm since 1945, Ray Williams, Airlife, 1989, ISBN 1-85310-057-9

[edit] Related content

Related development

Comparable aircraft

Designation sequence

Related lists