The Boulton & Paul P.3 Bobolink was a
World War I British single-engined single-seat
fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
. It was built by
Boulton & Paul Ltd.
Development and design
The ''Bobolink'' was the first aeroplane designed by Boulton & Paul Limited of Norwich. The company was a manufacturer of wooden buildings but during World War I it, like many other companies, built aircraft under Ministry contracts. Aircraft built included the
Sopwith 1½ Strutter
The Sopwith Strutter was a British single- or two-seat multi-role biplane aircraft of the First World War.Lake 2002, p. 40. It was the first British two-seat tractor fighter and the first British aircraft to enter service with a synchronised ...
and
Sopwith Camel.
The British
Air Ministry requested proposals to replace the Sopwith Camel. Boulton & Paul designed and constructed the Bobolink and entered it in that competition. The
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
first flew in early 1918, undergoing official trials in March of that year.
The Bobolink had two-bay biplane wings and was powered by the same
Bentley BR2 rotary engine as used by the competing
Sopwith Snipe. An unusual feature of the aircraft was the use of jettisonable fuel tanks. These were fitted behind the pilot and separated by a sheet of armour, allowing an individual tank to be jettisoned in the event of a fire.
While the Bobolink and Snipe had similar performance, the Snipe was easier to build, while the Bobolink was claimed to have poor ground handling, with the Snipe winning the Camel replacement competition.
Only a single prototype was produced.
Specifications
See also
References
;Notes
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External links
Boulton & Paul Bobolink– British Aircraft Directory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boulton and Paul Bobolink
Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom
Bobolink
1910s British fighter aircraft
Rotary-engined aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1918