British Bristol-Buckingham Type 163 Bomber Plane

By Crusader1307

With designs taken from the famed Beaumont Fighter Bomber, The Bristol Airplane Company’s prototype Buckingham Bomber was seen as a likely vie for a Contract With The British Royal Air Force during World War II. First incorporated in 1943, the course of The War’s Bombing Plan had shifted to the majority of Allied (US) Bombing Squadrons being based in England. As a result of this influx, only 119 Buckingham Type 163 Bombers were produced. None saw any serious Combat Missions. A stout Medium Bomber, The Type 163 was crewed by (2). The aircraft was 47-feet long with a wingspan of 72-feet. Powered by twin Bristol Centaurus VII Air-cooled Radial Engines, it could achieve a respectable 2,500-HP. This generated an airspeed of 340-mph. The Type 163 could range an impressive 2,300-miles. The operational ceiling was rated at 28,000-feet. Armament was rated to include a minimum of (2) 12.7mm Machine Guns – which could be deployed in a variety of performance packages. The Ordnance load was roughly 4,000-lbs. Although regulated to Escort and Transportation, The Type 163 was used mostly as a Trainer in late War and thereafter, with the last being retired in the mid-1950s.