This collection of over 270 archive photographs charts the history of Boulton Paul Aircraft over the 80 years of its time in the aircraft business.
The company has seen several name changes. It started as the Aircraft Department of the old Norwich firm of Boulton & Paul Aircraft Ltd in 1915, became Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd in 1934 and moved to Wolverhampton in 1936. In 1961 it became Dowty Boulton Paul Ltd and now trades as Dowty Aerospace Wolverhampton.
Initially the company made other people's aircraft, including more Sopwith Camels than anyone else, but opened its own Design Department in 1917, headed by the redoubtable J.D. North, and quickly gained a reputation for innovation. The company became an industry leader in metal construction and a specialist in the manufacture of high performance aerobatic medium bombers like the famous Sidestrand and Overstrand. Postwar it built the world's first single-engined turboprop the Balliol trainer, and entered the age of the jet with the P.111 and the P.120.
From wood and fabric aeroplanes to outer space this book illustrates the history of Boulton Paul with a series of extraordinary photographs most of which have never before appeared in print.