A Blackburn Roc
The Blackburn B-25 Roc was a fighter that was used by Great Britain during WWII. It based on the airframe of the Blackburn B-24 Skua, with 136 examples built to specification O.30/35. The name was taken from the mythical bird of prey featured in the '1001 Nights' stories. The Blackburn Roc had a Bristol Perseus XII Engine that was capable of propelling the Blackburn Roc at speeds of up to 358.8 km/h.
One of its main differences from the Skua was that it had four .303 Browning M1919 MGs mounted in a turret to the rear. The Roc also had a crew of two and it could carry up to eight 14 kg bombs under the wings. The loaded weight of the roc was 3,606 kg while the entire length of the roc was 10.8 meters.[1] The wingspan of the Roc was 14 meters while the service ceiling was approximately 5,500 meters.
Variants
Some of the converted aircraft were seaplanes with floats from Blackburn Shark aircraft, while L3084 - the 28th example - was used as a testbed for the sleeve-valve engine.[2] However, the first floatplane version crashed in testing and the floats were very unstable. Only two other floatplane examples were produced. The maximum speed of the Roc with the floats was reduced to only 286 km/h.
History
The Blackburn Roc was first developed in 1938 and it saw very little combat before being taken out of front line service. From then on, it was used as a tug aircraft and a trained. Although some aircraft were given to second-line squadrons.[1] The B-25 only had one confirmed air victory throughout the war. Some of the places that the Roc is known to have flown is off the coast of Norway and during the evacuation from Dunkirk.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.wwiivehicles.com/unitedkingdom/aircraft/fighter/blackburn-b-25-roc.asp
- ↑ Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II