it was 1934 and the rising political tension was a clear sign that innovations were not just expected but necessary.
around the same time, the british air ministry issued technical requirements for a multi-role aircraft for the royal navy air force under specification O.27/34 (naval dive bomber):
calling for a high speed, well armed two seat all-metal monoplane with retractable landing gear, fully enclosed cockpit. the aircraft should be designed to perform effectively as both, dive bomber and escort fighter, at the same time.
the requirements were challenging and quite ambitious for the time, as british carrier-based aviation consisted of slow moving biplanes with open cockpit and non retractable landing gear.
surprisingly, the blackburn engineering team quickly proposed a satisfactory project, and in 1935 the company received contracts for the development of two prototypes: K5178 and K5179.
Skua Mk.I k5178: the first prototype
the new machine was widely appreciated and proved to be considerably easy to control, requiring no high skilled pilots for a good performance. the takeoff speed was 115km/h (71.5 mph) with the flaps extended - a good-looking number considering the deck of the carrier.
radial air-cooled Bristol Mercury IX lightened engine with a power of 840 hp
innovative landing gear mechanism with retraction and release operation demanding only 35 seconds.
TIMELINE: construction completed by the end of 1936 → ground tests completed → first flight on february 9, 1937 → beginning of extensive testing program
17 August 1937 - the aircraft finally receives its name: Skua.
the Skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with long wings and a hooked beak known for their powerful dive bombing and kleptoparasitism techniques.
as the testing program was completed, the prototype was sent to the aircraft carrier HMS Pegasus for in carrier tests until march 9, 1938, when the aircraft was too worn out to be worth repairing.
almost a year after the first project, the new Skua’s prototype was born: the skua mk.II (K5179), which made its maiden flight on may 4, 1938, primarily equipped with the same engine.
the new version had a fairly significant increase of 73cm/2ft 4 3/4in in the length of the forward fuselage for better stability.
october 18, 1939 → the aircraft was assigned to the 800th FAA squadron, where it was safely decommissioned after intensive military testing
the urgent need for a new fighter-bomber for the Royal Navy led the air ministry to place a massive order for 190 aircraft in 1935 - yes, before the first prototype’s maiden flight. the contract assigned serial numbers L2867 to L3056 to them, and under the serial numbers, the new planes came up with a new modification: the installation of a new Bristol Perseus XII engine, with capacity of 890 hp.
The Perseus had a higher nominal power than the Mercury, however, it was inferior to the latter in almost all other respects. At this point, the replacement was indispensable: the Mercurys were reserved for the Bristol Blenheim bomber and Gloster Gladiator fighter production programs. With the new power plant, the aircraft was called the Blackburn DB1A Skua II
The aircraft is a cantilever monoplane with an all-metal construction with duralumin skin, though the ailerons, rudder, and elevator are covered with fabric. the fuselage’s design is semi-monocoque type.
the two-spar wing consists of three sections and, when parked, the sections can be manually folded back 90 degrees around its axis.
i. center section connected with rivets to the fuselage - holds a compartment for a 500-pound (226.8 kg) bomb, which, once dropped from a dive, a metal "trapezoid" guides de bomb beyond the propeller's arc. two additional bays for smaller-caliber ammunition surround the main one.
ii. two consoles attached to the center section with hinges
the wing is equipped with brake flaps used during a dive and landing of the aircraft.
the engine rotates a metal three-bladed De Havilland variable-pitch propeller with a diameter of 3.50 m.
the stabilizer of a unique shape is positioned far behind in relation to the vertical stabilizer with the rudder, allowing the elevator to occupy a larger area, necessary to ease the aircraft's recovery from a dive.
the landing gears with oil-pneumatic shock absorption are attached to the center section. they retract into niches in the folding parts of the wings using a hydraulic mechanism.
in the middle part of the fuselage there are two main fuel tanks with a capacity of 282 liters each. An extra 177L tank is located in the nose, filled almost exclusively for the purpose of maintaining the aircraft's center of gravity.
i. power: the engine power was clearly insufficient;
ii. unmaneuverable: the skua had a tendency to stall into a spin, from which it was very reluctant to recover. which caused the skua pilots to be prohibited from performing any aerobatic maneuvers at an altitude of less than 1,500 m/4,921 ft. a special parachute was provided in the tail section as plan B.
iii. landing: the view from the cockpit was limited due to the plane’s long nose. its overweight would increase the risk of nose-over, and the pilots would use the landing gear brakes very carefully, preferring to hope for the arresting gear cable to catch on the carrier's deck in time.
the skua could be a promising bomber, but with low rate of climb, relatively low speed and poor maneuverability, it was hard to fit in the roles of interceptor or escort fighter.
sources: baesystems, airwar, xplane forum, naval-encyclopedia.
images from multiple archives + google. some have credit on description, mostly can be found in any of the sources above. :)
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