Blackburn Roc

The Blackburn Roc, company designation B-25, was a British two-seat naval fighter aircraft designed and built by Blackburn Aircraft for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It was built to Air Ministry Specification O.30/35 as a derivative of the Blackburn Skua dive bomber, with the main change that its armament of four .303 inch Browning machine guns was mounted in a power-operated Boulton Paul turret behind the pilot, as in the Boulton Paul Defiant. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction with folding wings and a Bristol Perseus radial engine, and it took its name from the mythical bird of the Arabian Nights. The prototype first flew on 23 December 1938 and testing showed a top speed of only 223 miles per hour. The Roc entered Fleet Air Arm service in April 1939 and saw action in Norway and at Dunkirk, but it was soon judged inferior, was moved to air sea rescue and target towing, and was withdrawn in 1943.