Boulton & Paul Ltd

Boulton & Paul was a British general manufacturer from Norwich that became involved in aircraft manufacture.

Jeld Wen Inc, bought Boulton & Paul (along with another joinery company John Carr from the Rugby Group plc in 1999 to form its British subsidiary.

History

The company's origins date back to an ironmonger's shop founded in 1797 in Norwich. By the early 1900s, Boulton & Paul Ltd was a successful general manufacturing firm.

During the war, it was a major producer of prefabricated buildings, wire netting and wooden sub-assemblies of aircraft the site was bombed.In 1942 the Midland Woodworking Company of Melton Mowbray became a subsidiary.

Richard Jewson of the Jewson timber merchants and former Lord Mayor of Norwich was a member of the board until retiring in 1947.

Aircraft manufacture

In 1915, Boulton & Paul began to construct aircraft under contract including 550 of the Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2b. During the war the company built more Sopwith Camels than any other manufacturer. Success as a builder of aircraft led to the company forming a design department but none of its resulting aircraft made a significant impact while the war lasted. The P.3 Bobolink fighter was overshadowed by the Sopwith Snipe and the Armistice beat the P.7 Bourges fighter-bomber into production.

After World War I, Boulton & Paul made their mark with the introduction of powered and enclosed defensive machine gun turrets for bombers. Their Sidestrand twin-engined biplane bomber, which could fly at 140 mph, had an exposed nose turret which was clearly inadequate. The subsequent Overstrand bomber featured the world's first enclosed, power-operated turret, mounting a single Lewis gun and propelled by compressed air. The company licensed a French design of an electro-hydraulic four-gun turret which became a major feature of their future production. In addition to fitting turrets to bombers, Boulton & Paul was to install them in fighters.

Boulton & Paul provided most of the structure for the R101 airship; the completed sections being transported to Cardington for assembly there. The R101 subsequently flew over Norwich in return.

Boulton & Pauls aircraft were flown out of Mousehold Heath in Norwich - an area which became the first Norwich Airport

In 1934, Boulton & Paul sold their aircraft division off from the main construction business to create Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd. This moved to Wolverhampton in 1936. In 1961 Boulton Paul Aircraft merged with Dowty Group to form first Dowty Boulton Paul Ltd and then Dowty Aerospace.

Boulton Paul aircraft at Norwich

"First flight date shown"
*Boulton Paul P.3 Bobolink 1918
*Boulton Paul P-6 1918
*Boulton Paul P.7 Bourges 1918
*Boulton Paul Atlantic 1919
*Boulton Paul P.9 1919
*Boulton Paul Bolton 1922
*Boulton & Paul Bugle 1923
*Boulton Paul Bodmin 1924
*Boulton Paul P.29 Sidestrand 1926 - bomber
*Boulton Paul P.31 Bittern 1927
*Boulton Paul Partridge 1928
*Boulton Paul Phoenix 1929
*Boulton Paul P.32 1931
*Boulton Paul P.75 Overstrand 1933 - bomber
*Boulton Paul P.64 Mailplane 1933
*Boulton Paul P.71A 1934

External links

* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/companypage.php?ID=16 Boulton Paul at the British Aircraft Directory]
* [http://www.norfolkancestors.org/business/boultonandpaul.htm History of Boulton and Paul in Norwich]

ee also

*Mann Egerton