Boulton Paul P.92

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The Boulton Paul P.92 was a British design for a two-seat turret-armed fighter/ground attack aircraft to meet Air Ministry Specification F11/37.

[edit] Development

The specification called for a fighter capable of day and night operations, that could operate in the ground support roll. Armament was to be four 20 mm cannons in a power operated turret and a single 250 lb bomb in an internal bomb bay. The turret was also expected to be aerodynamically faired to meet the wing. The aircraft was expected to be able to have a speed of 370 mph (at 15,000 ft) with a service ceiling of 35,000 ft and manage an endurance of two and a half hours.

Boulton Paul's design was awarded a contract for two prototypes, one to use the Rolls Royce Vulture and the other the Napier Sabre - both big high power engines (1,800 and 2,000 hp respectively). Before these were completed a half-scale aircraft, the P.92/2, with Gipsy Major engines was built under contract in mid 1939 by Heston Aircraft for tests flying in May 1940 (some sources say 1941) about the same time as the project was cancelled and no more work done.