Home > Blackburn Skua
| Blackburn Skua
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| Description
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| Role | Dive-bomber; fighter; target-tower
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| Crew | 2
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| First Flight | February 9, 1937
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| Entered Service | August 28, 1938
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| Manufacturer | Blackburn Aircraft Ltd
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| Dimensions
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| Length | 35 ft 7 in | 10.8 m
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| Wingspan | 46 ft 2 in | 14.1 m
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| Height | 14 ft 2 in | 4.3 m
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| Wing area | 312 ft² | 29.0 m²
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| Weights
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| Empty | 5,490 lb | 2,490 kg
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| Loaded | 8,228 lb | 3,730 kg
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| Maximum takeoff | lb | kg
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| Powerplant
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| Engine | Bristol Perseus XII
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| Power | 905 hp | 675 kW
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| Performance
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| Maximum speed | 225 mph @ 6,500 ft | 360 km/h @ 2,000 m
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| Combat range | 800 miles | 1,290 km
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| Ferry range | miles | km
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| Service ceiling | 20,200 ft | 6,150 m
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| Rate of climb | ft/min | m/min
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| Wing loading | 26.4 lb/ft² | 128 kg/m²
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| Power/Mass | 0.11 hp/lb | 0.18 kW/kg
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| Armament
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| Guns | 4 × 0.303 in (7.62 mm) forward-firing machine guns
1 rear Lewis gun
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| Bombs | 500 lb | 225 kg
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The Blackburn Skua was a combat aircraft operated by the
Fleet Air Arm. The prototype first flew in 1937 with a Bristol Mercury powerplant, but
production models used the Bristol Perseus.
Built to specification O 4/34 it was a radical development for the FAA, being of all-metal construction and
their first service monoplane.
192 Skuas were built. Skuas are credited with shooting down the first enemy aircraft of the Second World War, a Dornier Do 18 downed on September 26, 1939. On April 10, 1940 16 Skuas flying from the Orkney Islands sank the German cruiser Königsberg in BergenThe municipality and city Bergen in the county of Hordaland, Norway, has 237,430 inhabitants as of January 1, 2004. Its administrative district covers 465 km². Bergen is the second largest city in Norway. It is located on the south-western coast-line of N Harbour during the invasionOperation Weserubung was the German codename for Nazi Germany's assault on Scandinavia during World War II. The name translates as "Weser Exercise", the Weser being a German river. On the early morning of 9 April, 1940 Wesertag ("Weser Day") — Germany inv of NorwayThe Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country west of Sweden on the Scandinavian Peninsula. It has a very elongated form and has an extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean, where Norway's famous fjords are found. In addition to Sweden, it borders R. This was the first large warship sunk by allied forces in the war.
The Skua suffered heavy losses when confronted with modern fighters, particularly the Messerschmitt Bf 109Bf 109 was the official Reichsluftfahrtministerium designation, though some late-war aircraft actually carried the Me 109 designation stamped onto their aircraft type plates. Me 109 was the name used officially by the Luftwaffe propaganda publications as, and they were withdrawn from front-line service in 1941This is a list of aviation-related events from 1941: Events Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean. February February 8 a fleet of Junkers Ju 52s is used to airlift German troops to North Africa. February 10 Br.
