Blackburn B-48/Y.A.1

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Contents

Type Description

• B-48/Y.A.1
• Single seat naval torpedo strike fighter to Specification S.28/43 to meet the requirements of OR.150, unofficially known as the "Firecrest". Derived from the Firebrand, it was a low-winged, single-seat, all-metal monoplane. Aft of the cockpit the fuselage was an oval-shaped stressed-skin semi-monocoque, but forward it had a circular-section, tubular-steel frame. The cockpit of the Firecrest was moved forward and raised the pilot's position so that he now looked over the wing leading edge, and down the nose. The canopy was adapted from the Hawker Tempest fighter. In the rear fuselage was a single 52 imp gal fuel tank with two 92 imp gal fuel tanks in the centre wing section. The aircraft had a redesigned, thinner, inverted gull wing of laminar flow aerofoil section. The wing consisted of a two-spar centre section with just over 6.5° of anhedral and outer panels with 9° of dihedral. It could be hydraulically folded in two places to allow more compact storage in the hangar decks of aircraft carriers. Four Fowler flaps were fitted to give good low-speed handling for landing and the wing had retractable dive brakes on both surfaces. The intended armament included a single torpedo or two underwing 250 lb bombs. Provision was also made for the carriage of rockets and two underwing Browning 0.5 inch machine gun pods or long range drop tanks. One 2,475 h.p. Bristol Centaurus 59 powerplant driving a 5-bladed Rotol constant-speed propeller.
  Three further aircraft aircraft were ordered to Specification S.10/45, to be fitted with the 3350 h.p. Napier E.122 SabreVIII powerplant. However, it was found that this aircraft could only be balanced if the E.122 powerplant was placed behind the pilot. The necessary redesign and 1,000 lb weight increase meant that it could no longer be justified and the project was cancelled.

Projected Variants

• B-62/Y.A.6
• B-48 fitted with a Proteus, Clyde or Python turboprop powerplant.

Production Details

Notes

1. Blackburn used a series of Works Order Numbers rather than Constructors Numbers to identify individual airframes, but referred to here as C/n's for consistency.
2. Unofficially known as the Firecrest.

Production References

1. Blackburn Aircraft Since 1909, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 1968 and 1989)
2. Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft Since 1946, Ray Sturtivant with Mick Burrows and Lee Howard (Air Britain Publications, 2004)