Bristol 163

Buckingham

The Bristol Buckingham has its origins with a desire for a medium bomber version of the Beaufighter to developed against Specification B.2/41 for the Royal Air Force.  The eventual design, with its twin Centaurus engines driving four blade propellers and large twin, fins bore little resemblance to its forebear, being considerably larger and heavier.

 

Development was delayed by frequent changes of specification and by power and reliability issues with the new Centaurus sleeve-valve engine. Nevertheless, the result was a fast, powerful and well-armed design, similar in concept to the B-25 Mitchell but with a maximum speed some 60 mph faster than that of the B-25.

 

 

Initially designated as the Type 162 and tentatively named Beaumont', construction had actually began in 1940 with the Air Ministry Specification eventually developed around the project. Certain requirements such as a dive-bombing capability were later removed which meant that the Type 162 no longer 'fitted the bill'.

 

These ammendments however, allowed for an increase in performance and so after a redesign, the Buckingham prototype (DX429) flew for the first time on 4th February 1943.

 

The aircraft had a heavy defensive armament with four forward-firing Browning guns in the nose, a further four in a dorsal turret and two in a ventral turret. The design bomb load was up to 4,000lb.

 

 

 

Development trials nevertheless, revealed problems with directional control when one engine became inoperative although this was cured by an increase in the area of the tail fins.

 

One aircraft (KV322) was actually tested with a triangular central fin but this configuration was not adopted for service.

 

 

Production comprised four prototypes followed by 119 Buckingham B. Mk. I.

 

In the event however, the performance of the De Havilland Mosquito undermined the need for the Buckingham and the first 54 aircraft were completed as bombers and were delivered into store, never entering RAF service in this role. The remaining 65 were produced in a three crew plus four passenger unarmed high speed transport configuration as the Buckingham C.1.

 

 

The 54 stored bomber aircraft were returned to Filton for conversion to the transport role as Buckingham C.1 although many of these were returned to storage before being subsequently scrapped having done very little flying.

 

Many of the new-build transport aircraft were also delivered to store and did not see operational service.

 

Two aircraft (KV365 and KV369) were converted to C.2 configuration by the Transport Command Development Unit (TCDU) and could accommodate seven passengers.

 

	Buckingham C.1
Powerplant	Two 2,400 hp Centaurus IV, VII or XI
Span	71 ft 10 in
Maximum Weight	36,900 lb
Capacity and armament	Three crew, four passengers. No armament fitted
Maximum Speed	335 mph
Endurance / Range	3,000 miles