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The Blackburn Beverley was a large four engined transport aircraft that served with the RAF from 1956 to 1967, and was the largest aircraft to enter RAF service to that date.
Work on the aircraft that became the Beverley began at General Aircraft Ltd towards the end of the Second Wold War. F.F. Crocombe, the company’s chief designer, wanted to produce a large aircraft that could carry bulky loads over long distances, as well as operating close to the front line. General Aircraft had experience of building large aircraft, after producing the Hamilcar glider, and took advantage of this in the new design.
Their first design, which appeared in 1945, focused on the tactical transport role. Its main feature was a detachable cargo compartment with its own tracked undercarriage which could be dropped from an aircraft flying at 90mph at a height of 10ft. This would have allowed heavy loads to be dropped in areas where the large transport wouldn’t have been able to land. The aircraft that carried this compartment had four engines, twin fins and a fixed undercarriage. It would have been powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin 90 engines, and carry a payload of 20,000lb
This was followed by a series of modified designs, with a mix of two and four engines. The design which most resembled the eventual Beverley was for an aircraft to be powered by four Bristol Centaurus engines, capable of carrying a cargo of 38,000lb.
This work began to pay off when the Air Ministry issued Specification C.3 46, for a new medium-range tactical transport aircraft. It was to have a range of 500 miles with a cargo of 25,000lb, a service ceiling of 18,000ft and to be able to land in 225 yards and at take off clear a height of 50ft in 970 yards. Power was to come from a new version of the Bristol Hercules, with a two-speed supercharger, developing 1,950hp. The new aircraft also needed to be able to work as a troop transport, paratrooper transport, glider towing, casualty evacuation and to drop loads by parachute.
General Aircraft responded to this specification with the Universal Freighter Mk 1. This was a four engined high wing aircraft, with a 162ft wingspan. In order to make it easier to load and unload cargoes it had a fixed tricycle undercarriage which meant that the fuselage stayed fairly level on the ground. There was a large entrance ramp at the rear of the cargo compartment, with a high mounted twin-boom tail. This layout made it much easier to use the cargo space and allowed larger loads to be simply driven up the ramp, and made it much easier to use than the wartime C-47 Dakota or C-46 Commando, with their tail wheel undercarriage, side entrance doors and sloped cargo compartment on the ground. In order to give the aircraft the short take off and landing abilities asked for it had reversible pitch airscrews and NACA slotted trailing edge flaps on the wings.
The Universal Freighter actually had three cargo holds. In the nose was a 15ft long, 6ft 8in high forward hold. At the rear was a sloping compartment with 5ft 6in of headroom. Between them was the main hold, 36ft long, 10ft wide and 15ft 6in high for most of its length and 10ft under the flight deck. The floor could take a weight of 325lb/ sq ft. Every 20in there was a floor shackle capable of holding 5.5 tons. Along the sides there were rings capable of holding 1 ton every 18in. The aircraft could carry nine jeeps in two tiers, 81 troops, 48 casualty stretchers and six medical attendants, 38 paratroops with 24 supply containers under the fuselage, one 3.7in anti-aircraft gun or two heavy army vehicles with a combined weight of 25,200lb.
On 1 January 1949 General Aircraft merged with Blackburn to form Blackburn and General Aircraft Ltd. It was decided to complete the Universal Freighter at General’s Feltham works. However by October 1949, when the aircraft was complete, it was realised that the nearby Hanworth Aerodrome wasn’t suitable for the first flight. As a result the massive aircraft had to be dis-assembled and moved to Brough. The prototype made its maiden flight at Brough on 20 June 1950. At the time it was the second largest British land plane, second only to the Bristol Brabazon.
A second prototype was ordered in September 1950. However the need for a large transport capable of landing on small airstrips was now less important than in 1946, several changes were proposed. The main one was to replace the Hercules engines with 2,850hp Bristol Centaurus engines, which were far more economical to use and would allow the aircraft to carry the same payload for three times as far, or 50,000lb on short flights. Removable clam shell doors were wanted for the main hatch, to allow large cargoes to be dropped. The tail boom was to be enlarged to allow it to carry passengers.
During 1951 the prototype was used test the practicality of dropping very heavy loads and was given a new undercarriage with four wheel bogies. It appeared at the Fifty Years of Flying Exhibition at Hendon on 19 July 1951 and the SBAC Show of 11-16 September.
Early in 1952 permission was granted to build a second prototype to the new design. This version was given the General Aircraft designation G.A.L.65, the Blackburn type code B-100, and the name Universal Freighter Mk 2. The main fuselage remained the same, but it was given the removable clam shell doors, Centaurus engines and the modified tail boom with space for passengers. Work was also carried out on a cross-Channel car ferry version of the aircraft, capable of carrying six cars and five motorbikes on two decks in the main cargo hold and 42 passengers in the tail boom. This version only ever reached the model stage. Later attempts to produce a civilian version of the Beverley also failed.
The military version was more successful. The Ministry of Supply placed an order for 20 aircraft for RAF Transport Command, with deliveries to start in 1955. This was soon increased to 47 aircraft. In December 1952 it was named the Blackburn Beverley.
The second prototype made its maiden flight on 14 June 1953. The first two production aircraft made their maiden flights on 29 January 1955 and 30 March 1955, and were kept by Blackburn for trials. The next two aircraft were delivered to the A&AEE and Boscombe Down in July 1955 for acceptance trials and to test them as paratrooper transports. By May 1956 more than 250 parachute drops had been made at Boscombe Down, some from a hatch in the rear fuselage and some from the side doors of the main compartment. The second of the A&AEE aircraft was used on long distance flights in 1955, first to Tripoli and then to Canada (flying via Iceland).
The first delivery of a Beverley C.Mk 1 to an RAF squadron took place on 12 March 1956, when XB265 was issued to No.47 Squadron. Four more aircraft were delivered by the end of March. On 1 July 1956 the squadron began to fly a regular five times a week trip to RAF Wildenrath, Germany, carrying supplies for 2nd Tactical Air Force. On some of these trips the aircraft carried dismantled helicopters as well as the normal heavy cargos and passengers. The squadron’s route network soon expanded to include Cyprus, Malta and North Africa. By March 1957 the squadron had carried 4,700 tons of cargo and 2,700 passengers.
The second squadron to convert to the Beverley was No.53 Squadron, which began to receive the new aircraft in February 1957. The squadron was later disbanded and merged in No.47 Squadron./
In 1957 pairs of aircraft from the two squadrons were based in Aden, supporting the British troops helping the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. One aircraft was lost in a crash near Abingdon on 5 March 1957, but they coped well with the tough conditions in Aden.
No. 30 Squadron converted to the Beverley in April 1957.
In May 1958 No.84 Squadron, then based at Aden, converted to the Beverley. The squadron took part in the response to the Brunei revolt of 1962 and had carried 60,000 passengers and 20,000 tons of cargo by July 1963.
In June 1958 all three squadrons took part in an airlift to Cyprus, with the aircraft taking 16 hours to reach the island, with two refuelling stops. Later in 1958 No.30 Squadorn moved to Kenya, to take part in the campaign against the Mau Mau. In 1965, after Kenya gained her independence, the squadron moved to Bahrein, before returning to the UK in 1966.
Four Beverleys joined No.48 Squadron at Singapore early in 1959. On 10 October 1960 these aircraft were joined by a fifth to form the final Beverley squadron, No.34 Squadron. This was based at RAF Seletar and was used to fly supplies to Labuan during the Malayan Emergency.
In 1966 three Beverleys from No.47 Squadron were sent to Da Nang in Vietnam to help fly relief supplies to the Vietnamese highlands, remaining for 18 months.
After a decade of service the Beverleys were beginning to show their age, and in 1967 they began to be replaced by the Lockheed C-130K Hercules. By the end of the year they had almost all gone. Most were scrapped by the end of the 1970s, but four survived for longer. Of those only one, XB259, still survives. This aircraft was at the Museum of Army Transport at Beverley until that closed, then at Fort Paull east of Hull until it was sold in 2020.
Beverley C.Mk 1
Engine: Four Bristol Centaurus 173
Power: 2,850hp each
Crew:
Span: 162ft 0in
Length: 99ft 5in
Height: 38ft 9in
Empty weight: 79,230
Maximum gross weight: 135,000lb
Max speed: 238mph
Climb Rate: 760ft/ min
Service ceiling: 16,000ft
Endurance: 1,300 miles at 186mph at 8,000ft with 29,000lb; 160 miles at 170mph at 8,000ft with 50,000lb load