Boulton Paul P.112

Role	Three-seat Trainer
Manufacturer	Boulton Paul Aircraft
Designer	John Dudley North
Status	Cancelled before completion of first prototype
Number built	0

Last updated March 16, 2019

The Boulton Paul P.112 was an elementary trainer designed by Boulton Paul Aircraft for the Royal Air Force.

Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd was a British aircraft manufacturer that was incorporated in 1934, although its origins in aircraft manufacturing began earlier in 1914, and lasted until 1961. The company mainly built and modified aircraft under contract to other manufacturers, but had a few notable designs of its own, such as the Defiant fighter and the Balliol trainer.

Royal Air Force Aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world. Following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain.

Design and development

The P.112 was developed from the successful Boulton Paul Balliol, an advanced trainer powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine, sharing the same fuselage as the Balliol but with new high aspect ratio wings and a non-retractable spatted undercarriage of 15 ft 2 in (4.62 m) track.^[1]^[2]^{[ verification needed ]} The trainer was equipped with three seats, similar to the Balliol and looked so like the earlier aircraft that the image in the brochure was actually a retouched Balliol T.1.^[3] However, the Royal Air Force preferred the smaller de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk to the P.112 and so no production ensued.^[3]

The Boulton Paul Balliol and Sea Balliol are monoplane military advanced trainer aircraft built for the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA) by Boulton Paul Aircraft. Developed in the late 1940s, the Balliol was designed to replace the North American Harvard trainer. It used the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Sea Balliol was a naval version for deck landing training.

The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey.

Variants

P.112: Baseline design for the elementary trainer, powered by an Alvis Leonides LE.4M
P.112A: The same design equipped with a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp engine. This and the Balliol T.2A, were the only Boulton Paul aircraft offered with American engines.^[3]

Specifications (P.112)

Data from Boulton Paul Aircraft^[4]

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Capacity: 1 pax or supernumery
Length: 35 ft 1.5 in (10.706 m)
Wingspan: 45 ft 9 in (13.94 m)
Height: 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Powerplant: 1 × Alvis Leonides LE.4M 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, 520 hp (390 kW)
Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed propeller

Performance

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References

↑ Brew, Alec (1993). Boulton Paul aircraft since 1915. London: Putnam. pp. 339–340. ISBN 0-85177-860-7.
↑ Stemp, P.D. (2011). Boulton Paul Aircraft. Lulu. p. 45. ISBN 9781446133163.
1 2 3 Brew, Alec (2015). The Boulton Paul Balliol: The Last Merlin-Powered Aircraft. Stroud: Fonthill. ISBN 9781781553619.
↑ Brew, Alec (2001). Boulton Paul Aircraft. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 9780752421162.

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[Brew-1] Brew, Alec (1993). Boulton Paul aircraft since 1915. London: Putnam. pp. 339–340. ISBN 0-85177-860-7.

[2] Stemp, P.D. (2011). Boulton Paul Aircraft. Lulu. p. 45. ISBN 9781446133163.

[brew2015-3] 1 2 3 Brew, Alec (2015). The Boulton Paul Balliol: The Last Merlin-Powered Aircraft. Stroud: Fonthill. ISBN 9781781553619.

[brew2001-4] Brew, Alec (2001). Boulton Paul Aircraft. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 9780752421162.

v t e Aircraft from Boulton & Paul Ltd/Boulton Paul Aircraft
Manufacturer designations	P.3 P.6 P.7 P.8 P.9 P.10 P.12 P.15 P.25 P.29 P.31 P.32 P.33 P.41 P.64 P.71 P.75 P.82 P.85 P.92 P.93 P.94 P.108 P.111 P.112 P.116 P.119 P.120 P.130 P.134 P.135 P.136 P.137 P.140 P.141 P.142 P.143 P.145
By role (service names)	Fighters Bobolink Bittern Defiant Partridge Bombers Bolton Bourges Bodmin Bugle Sidestrand Overstrand P.32 Experimental Atlantic P-6 P.10 P.92/2 P.111 P.120 Mailplane Mailplane P.71A Private Boulton Paul Phoenix Trainer Balliol