Introduction

The original Boulton Paul P.122 The Boulton Paul P.122 was a design for a rocket powered interceptor, designed in response to Specification F.124T.

Specification F.124T called for a small rocket powered bomber interceptor, to defend against the new generation of high speed Soviet bombers. The aircraft would have to have a very high rate of climb and good high altitude performance, and be able to glide back to land after the fuel was expended.

The P.122 (and most of its rivals) would have been powered by the 8,000lb thrust Armstrong Siddeley Screamer variable thrust rocket. The Screamer used methanol, water and liquid oxygen fuel.

The P.122 was a twin-boom aircraft, with its cannon armaments carried in extensions of the booms in front of the wings. It didn't have a conventional undercarriage, and instead took off from a jettisonable trolley and landed on a skid built into the fuselage.

(source: http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weaponsboultonpaul_P122.html)

My version of it, as always, is based on a "what if" scenario. The BP P.122 lost out to the Saunders Roe SR53 which among other thing had a retractable undercarriage and a small back up jet engine. I decided to incorporate the undercarriage on this design as it in my mind at least makes the project that little bit more feasible.

Controls

Cycle through to ground attack menu, fire all weapons (rockets are thus fired at the rear), after that just remember to pull back and retract U/C as normal. Note: The firing sequence of the rockets in the pod can lead to some horizontal movement over the runway to counter with rudder.

Pictures

Rocket ignition

Gear away

Vertical on intercept

Jettison rocket pod

Information

SP rockets do not have a variable for thrust, hence i needed to stack them, you have 10 rockets (8 visible) instead of the single large rocket motor of the "real" aircraft.