The Boulton Paul P.112 was an elementary trainer designed by
Boulton Paul Aircraft
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 co ...
for the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
.
Design and development
The P.112 was developed from the successful
Boulton Paul Balliol
The Boulton Paul Balliol and Sea Balliol are monoplane advanced trainer aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Boulton Paul Aircraft. On 17 May 1948, it became the world's first single-engined turboprop aircraft to ...
, an advanced trainer powered by a
Rolls-Royce Merlin
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) 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 ...
piston engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
, sharing the same fuselage as the Balliol but with new high aspect ratio wings and a non-retractable spatted undercarriage of track.
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.
However, the Royal Air Force preferred the smaller
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk to the P.112 and so no production ensued.
[
]
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
The Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp is an aircraft engine of the reciprocating type that was widely used in American aircraft from the 1920s onward. It was the Pratt & Whitney aircraft company's first engine, and the first of the famed Wasp series ...
engine. This and the Balliol T.2A, were the only Boulton Paul aircraft offered with American engines.[
]
Specifications (P.112)
See also
References
{{Boulton Paul aircraft
P.112
1940s British military trainer aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Low-wing aircraft