This is a partial list of the British Air Ministry specifications for aircraft. A specification started from an Operational Requirement, abbreviated "OR", describing what the aircraft would be used for - this in turn led to a specification eg a two engined fighter with 4 machine guns. So for example, OR.40 for a heavy bomber led to Specification B.12/36. Aircraft manufacturers would design and build aircraft which the Ministry then bought for evaluation by the RAF. On very rare occasions, a manufacturer would design and build an aircraft using their own money as a "Private Venture". This would then be offered to the Ministry for evaluation. If the aircraft generated interest in the Ministry or RAF due to performance or some other combination of features then the Ministry might well bring out a specification based on the Private Venture aircraft. The Air Ministry was formerly a department of the United Kingdom Government, established in 1918 with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the (then newly formed) Royal Air Force. ...

The system of producing aircraft to a specification ran from 1920 to 1949 during which the Air Ministry was replaced by first the Ministry of Aircraft Production and then the Ministry of Supply. The system was applied to commercial aircraft as well - one of the last being the Bristol Brabazon. During the period, over 800 specifications were issued. The Minister of Aircraft Production was the British government position in charge of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, one of the specialised supply ministries set up by the British Government during World War II. As the name suggests, it was responsible for aircraft production for the British forces; primarily the... The Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was a huge airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1949 to fly a large number of passengers on transatlantic routes from England to the United States. ...

Specification designations

Each specification name usually followed a pattern. A leading letter was usually present to identify the aircraft purpose. The codes used included B for "heavy bomber", P for "medium bomber", F for "fighter" and A for "army co-operation". The second part was a number identifying it in sequence and then after the slash, the year it was formulated. Specifications were not always issued in sequence. Admiralty specifications, identified by the letter N, are included for completeness. A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and make it easier to understand, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Old Admiralty House, Whitehall, London, Thomas Ripley, architect, 1723-26, was not admired by his contemporaries and earned him some scathing couplets from Alexander Pope The Admiralty was historically the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ...

List of specifications (incomplete)

The names of the aircraft shown in the table are not necessarily those they carried when provided for evaluation. The names were usually chosen by the Air Ministry when they placed an production order.

General History The Bristol Bulldog was a Royal Air Force (RAF) single-seat biplane fighter designed during the 1920s by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, with over three hundred Bulldogs produced, that arguably became the most famous aircraft during the RAFs inter-war period. ... The Gloster Gladiator was a biplane fighter, used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, during World War II. The aircraft had a top speed of around 414 km/h. ... The Bristol Bombay was a medium bomber and troop transport aircraft flown by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. ... The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. ... The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force that was one of the main front-line bombers at the start of World War II. Along with the Whitley and Wellington bombers, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war... The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was one of three twin-engine, front-line medium bombers in service with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of World War II. Along with the Handley Page Hampden and the Vickers Wellington, it bore the brunt of the early fighting, seeing... Despite its resemblance to the Hurricane, the Henley was designed as a light bomber The Hawker Henley was a two-seat target tug operated by the RAF during World War Two. ... The Merlin was a 12 cylinder, 60° V, 27 litre, liquid cooled piston aircraft engine built during World War II by Rolls-Royce. ... The Hawker Hurricane is a fighter design from the 1930s which was used extensively by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. ... The Westland Lysander is an airplane used during World War II (Flying example in the Shuttleworth Collection, 2004. ... The Vickers Warwick was a transport, anti-submarine patrol and air-sea rescue aircraft of the RAF during World War II. Vickers Warwick The Warwick was designed in response to Air Ministry specification B.1/35 for a two-engined heavy (by the standards of the day) bomber to replace... Image:Supermarine Spitfire Protofewfeype K5054 Unpainted. ... The Bristol Type 142M Blenheim was a high-speed light bomber used extensively in the early days of World War II, built by Bristol Aeroplane Company. ... This article describes the World War II fighter aircraft. ... The Hawker Hurricane is a fighter design from the 1930s which was used extensively by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. ... The design of the Oerlikon 20mm cannon, by Reinhold Becker dates back to 1914, and is still in use today, after having been used extensively during the Second World War. ... The Stirling was a World War II heavy bomber design built by Short Brothers. ... The Saunders-Roe (Saro) A36 Lerwick was a Second World War reconnaissance monoplane flying-boat of the RAF, replacing the biplane Londons. ... The Avro Manchester was a twin-engined heavy bomber developed during World War II by the Avro aircraft company in the UK. The Manchester was a failure, being severely under-powered, but it was the forerunner to the famous Avro Lancaster bomber, one of the most successful bombers of the... The Vickers Warwick was a transport, anti-submarine patrol and air-sea rescue aircraft of the RAF during World War II. Vickers Warwick The Warwick was designed in response to Air Ministry specification B.1/35 for a two-engined heavy (by the standards of the day) bomber to replace... The Rolls-Royce Vulture (and the related Peregrine) were aircraft engines, and probably the least successful power units ever produced by Rolls-Royce. ... The Airspeed AS10 Oxford was a twin-engine aircraft used for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery during World War II. // History The Oxford was based on Airspeeds commercial 8-seater Envoy III, seven of which had been modified for the South African Air... The Miles M.14 Magister was a British 2-seat monoplane basic trainer aircraft built by the Miles Aircraft for the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. ... The Typhoon was a British single-seat fighter aircraft, produced by Hawker Aviation starting in 1941. ... The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo- and dive-bomber used during World War II, the first of its type to be fabricated entirely from metal. ... Halifax W1057 ZA-X of No. ... The Gloster E.28/39, (also referred to as the Gloster Whittle, Gloster Pioneer, or Gloster G.40) was the first jet engined aircraft to fly in the United Kingdom. ... The correct title of this article is de Havilland Mosquito. ... The Welkin was a twin-engine heavy fighter from the Westland Aircraft company, designed to fight at extremely high altitudes in the stratosphere. ... The Gloster Meteor was the first jet fighter aircraft of the British Royal Air Force, introduced into service only weeks after the Third Reichs Messerschmitt Me 262, in August 1944 during World War II. It was thus the second fighter jet in history and the first of the WWII... The second Miles M.20 prototype The Miles M.20 was a World War II fighter developed by Miles Aircraft in 1940. ... The Hawker Tempest was an RAF fighter aircraft of World War II, an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, and one of the most powerful fighters used in the war. ... The Hawker Fury was a biplane fighter design used by the RAF in the 1930s. ... Hawker Sea Furies in Canadian Navy livery. ... The Rolls-Royce Eagle V12 was a 12 cylinder 60 degree V12 aero engine of 20 Liters capacity. ... The Westland W.34 Wyvern was a single-seat carrier-based attack aircraft of the 1950s intended to cover a wide variety of roles. ... The Avro Vulcan was a British-built jet-engined, delta-winged subsonic bomber, once part of the RAFs V bomber force. ... The Handley Page Victor was a British jet bomber aircraft, one of the V bombers intended to carry Britains nuclear arsenal. ... this article is about the jet powered bomber, for the biplane see Vickers 131 Valiant. ...

Further Reading

• K.J. Meekcoms & E.B. Morgan, The British Aircraft Specifications File (Air Britain, 1994) ISBN 0-85130-220-3
• Colin Sinnott, The RAF and Aircraft Design, 1923-1939: Air Staff Operational Requirements (Frank Cass, 2001) ISBN 0-7146-5158-3
• Tony Buttler, British Secret Projects - Fighters and Bombers 1935-1950 (Midland Publishing, 2004) ISBN 1-85780-179-2