The Blackburn Beverly

The Beverley, named after the cathedral town in Yorkshire near its birthplace, was introduced as a developed version of the G.A.L. 60 Universal Transport which first flew in 1950. The Universal Transport, the largest aircraft of its kind to be built in Great Britain, was designed by the General Aircraft Co. in 1946 before its merger with the Blackburn organization. The Beverley differed from the Universal in having Bristol Centaurus engines in place of the original Hercules and improved performance. The first production Beverley C. 1 (XB 259) flew on 29 January 1955 and 47 were built for the R.A.F. before production ended with XM 112, delivered in May 1958.

At the time of its introduction, the Beverley was not only the largest aircraft to enter service with the R.A.F., but also the first British aircraft specially designed for the dropping of heavy Army equipment through rear loading doors (removed for this purpose) and a variety of medium-range transport duties, offering high capacity and the ability to operate from small airfields. Unique features included a payload of nearly 2 tons, a freight hold of nearly 6,000 cub. ft., a passenger-carrying tail boom and the remarkable take-off and landing runs of 810 yards. and 350 yards. respectively. In addition to supply dropping and freight-carrying, tasks assigned to the Beverley included the transport of parachute troops, casualty evacuation and the support of ground forces in the field.

Beverleys first entered service with Transport Command in March 1956, the first unit to be equipped being No. 47 Squadron at Abingdon. Among the Beverley’s first tasks was the delivery of Sycamore and Whirlwind helicopters to Cyprus. In October 1959, a Beverley dropped a military load of 40,000 LB. suspended on eight 66-ft. parachutes-the largest load ever dropped from an aircraft in Great Britain at that time. Subsequent Beverley operations involved regular route flying between the U.K. and Wildenrath (Germany) and a weekly service to Aden. Beverleys also flew supplies to British forces in the Yemen in 1957 and operated in the Kuwait crisis and Kenya relief operations of 1961. Most were withdraw from R.A.F. service at the end of 1967, final retirement being marked by a fly-past of two aircraft at R.A.F. Upavon on 6 December 1968.

The Beverly is currently at version 1.0.

Download the Beverly version 1.0 (X-Plane version 5.61)


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