BRITISH MEDIUM-BOMBER BRISTOL BUCKINGHAM B.I

The Bristol Buckingham was a British medium bomber, in a spine-wing configuration, with a retractable landing gear dating back to World War II. The drive was provided by two motors Bristol Centaurus VII with 2520 hp each. The prototype flight took place in 1943. In the course of serial production, which lasted in the years 1943-1945, approx. 120 examples of this aircraft were produced. The armament was eight 7.7 mm Browning machine guns and a load of up to 1814 kg of bombs. The Bristol Buckingham was created as the successor to another RAF bomber, the Blenheim. The first works were undertaken as early as 1940-1941, but they were significantly prolonged, which led to the first prototype taking off only at the end of 1943! Nevertheless, the new design was characterized by a much higher maximum speed, strong onboard weapons, new, much more powerful engines and a greater load capacity of bombs. Despite the advantages of the structure, its serial production has been limited in favor of other machines that are proven and used on a large scale. including: Hawker Typhoon or B-25 Mitchell. In total, only two versions of the Bristol Buckingham machine were built. The first was called B Mk. I - acted as a bomber. The second one (C Mk. I) was used as a fast transport plane. Aircraft of this type took a marginal part in World War II, acting as courier machines in the Mediterranean in the period 1944-1945. The Bristol Brigand torpedo plane was also built on the basis of the Bristol Buckingham plane. After World War II, Bristol Buckingham machines were used for training pilots and were finally withdrawn from the line until the mid-1950s.