There is a long list of aircraft designs that are considered bad, terrible and dangerous. However, usually at the top of that list is the Blackburn Botha, an aircraft that had many flaws and was hardly loved by crews. Work on the Botha initially began in 1935 when the RAF started looking for a new torpedo bomber/general reconnaissance aircraft. In fact, it was built to the same specification as the Bristol Beaufort, an aircraft that would be much more superior in every way to the Botha. Originally powered by Bristo Perseus engines these would prove to be woefully underpowered when in 1936 the Air Ministry changed the specification from a threeman crew to a fourman crew. However, while the Beaufort program as given the better Bristol Taurus engines the Botha had to lumber on with the Perseus engines. Still the design as ordered straight off the drawing baord. First flown in December 1938, issues with the design were quickly found. These included longitudinal instability, high stall speed and being underpowered. Still the Botha continued into RAF service. In RAF service it would only serve with frontline squadron before being quickly relegated to training units. It saw extensive service with a wide number of training units before eventually all were declared obsolete and sent to the scrappers in mid 1943. Even though it had many issues, the Botha would still see a production run of 580 airframes being built.

Links:
Purchase your official The Antique Airshow merchandise here: https://www.tomatoeins.com.au/s/shop


Disclaimer: All comments that are not from The Antique Airshow in the comment section are not opinions of The Antique Airshow.

Follow The Antique Airshow on Instagram:   / tomato_eins  
Enjoy and be sure to like and subscribe for more!✈

Sources:
Coming soon.

** I don't like to use Wikipedia but sometimes with these rare aircraft there is not many sources. However, I always check the references to ensure that the article is creditable.
#ww2aircraft #ww2 #aviationhistory #aircraft #britishhistory #blackburn #royalairforce #aviation #failedaircraft