Blackburn B.48 / YA.1 (Firecrest)

Blackburn B. 48 / Yes. 1 (Ficrecrest) Story

During World War II (1939-1945) there were constant problems with the development of Blackburn's "Firebrand" single-seat, single-engine naval strike fighter (described in detail elsewhere on this page), which meant that the genre struggled hard Will help achieve combat capability (it actually only entered service after the war in 1945, and only 220 were eventually acquired by the Royal Navy (RN)). This prompted the Blackburn engineering team to develop an entirely new design to support Firebrand's limitations, and this work culminated in the Blackburn "Firecrest", also known as the "B-48" and "Y.

A. 1". The Firecrest will take on the same shipborne strike role as the Firebrand and, when it proves to be a more reliable product, will also serve the RN's Fleet Aviation (FAA).

Air Department Specifications page 28/43 prepared for the development of the Firecrest ("Firecrest" is its unofficial name) and commissioned three airworthy prototypes.

The aircraft is equipped with an air-cooled 18-cylinder Bristol Centaurus 59 series 2,475 hp radial engine driving a five-blade propeller. Top speed is 612 mph, and cruising is close to 215 mph. Range is 900 miles and service is capped at 31,600 feet. The climb rate is 2,500 feet per minute.

Proposed armament is 2 x 12.7mm M2 Browning machine guns on the wings and supports 8 x RP-3 rockets and 1 x 2,100 lb torpedoes (under the fuselage) or 2 x 250 lb bombs (wings) below).

The first prototype was labeled "RT651" and fell into the hands of Blackburn (later scrapped) after the Air Ministry completed flight testing. The second prototype became "RT656" and was used for structural testing before being scrapped in 1952.

In 1948, the third fuselage of the batch, "VF172", was used as a research platform and tested the intricacies of upgrading the ailerons, and was sold back to Blackburn the following year, but scrapped along with her sisters.

After its turbulent period of development, Firecrest was further surpassed with the advent of the jet age and the development of a completely new turboprop technology that promises to provide greater benefits than Firecrest can provide - develop it Limited to the three prototypes above. Other similar platforms from this period have had varying degrees of operational success, including Westland "Wyvern", American Martin AM "Mauler" and the classic Douglas AD "Skyraider" - all details are elsewhere on this site.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes