Boulton & Paul P.6

Boulton & Paul · United Kingdom · first flew 1918 · light aircraft

The Boulton & Paul P.6 was a one-off, conventional single-engined biplane built to test the aerodynamics of different airfoil sections. It was later used as the company sales machine.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	Upper wing well above the fuselage, with the centre section braced by outward sloping struts
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Single-bay biplane without stagger or sweep, with constant-chord wings and a large interplane gap
Upper wing well above the fuselage, with the centre section braced by outward sloping struts
Four-bladed propeller on a partly cowled air-cooled engine with the cylinder heads protruding

The two-seat wood and fabric biplane used many Sopwith Camel parts in its fuselage, and a 90 hp RAF 1a engine. It carried the experimental number X.25 and RAF roundels.

Specifications

The Boulton & Paul P.6 has a length of 5.79 m (19 ft).
It has a wingspan of 7.62 m (25 ft).
Its maximum speed is 166 km/h (103 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

It was only the second aircraft designed and built by Boulton & Paul. The date of its first flight is not known but was probably towards the end of 1918, and it had completed initial tests by March 1919.

Variants

Only one was built. A replica built by the Boulton Paul Association is displayed at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aircraft Museum at Flixton.

Where you'll see it

By May 1919 Boulton & Paul were using it as their sales machine, and it made perhaps the first business flight, from Mousehold Heath at Norwich to Bury St Edmunds. It flew rather well and gathered useful aerodynamic data.

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