Boulton & Paul Ltd

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For the post 1934 aircraft manufacturer, see Boulton Paul Aircraft

Boulton Paul was a British general manufacturer from Norwich that became involved in aircraft manufacture.

Jeld Wen Inc, bought Boulton & Paul (along with another joinery company John Carr from the Rugby Group plc in 1999 to form its British subsidiary.

1 History
- 1.1 Aircraft manufacture
2 Boulton Paul aircraft at Norwich
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] History

The company's origins date back to an ironmonger's shop founded in 1797 in Norwich. By the early 1900s, Boulton & Paul Ltd was a successful general manufacturing firm.

[edit] Aircraft manufacture

In 1915, Boulton & Paul began to construct aircraft under contract including 550 of the Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2b. During the war the company built more Sopwith Camels than any other manufacturer. Success as a builder of aircraft led to the company forming a design department but none of its resulting aircraft made a significant impact while the war lasted. The P.3 Bobolink fighter was overshadowed by the Sopwith Snipe and the Armistice beat the P.7 Bourges fighter-bomber into production.

After World War I, Boulton & Paul made their mark with the introduction of powered and enclosed defensive machine gun turrets for bombers. Their Sidestrand twin-engined biplane bomber, which could fly at 140 mph, had an exposed nose turret which was clearly inadequate. The subsequent Overstrand bomber featured the world's first enclosed, power-operated turret, mounting a single Lewis gun and propelled by compressed air. The company licensed a French design of an electro-hydraulic four-gun turret which became a major feature of their future production. In addition to fitting turrets to bombers, Boulton Paul was to install them in fighters.

Boulton Paul provided most of the structure for the R101 airship; the completed sections being transported to Cardington for assembly there. The R101 subsequently flew over Norwich in return.

Boulton Pauls aircraft were flown out of Mousehold Heath in Norwich - an area which became the first Norwich Airport

In 1934, Boulton & Paul sold their aircraft division off from the main construction business to create Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd. This moved to Wolverhampton in 1936. In 1961 Boulton Paul Aircraft merged with Dowty Group to form first Dowty Boulton Paul Ltd and then Dowty Aerospace.