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The Boulton Paul P.100 was a design for a tail first fighter produced in response to an Air Ministry specification for a manoeuvrable fighter.
Specification F.6/42 called for a fighter with a high rate of climb (4,500ft/ min to 20,000ft), good acceleration and good manoeuvrability. Boulton Paul's first design was the P.98, a tail first pusher that was judged to be over-weight. This was followed by the P.101, a staggered biplane with cantilevered wings and the cannon carried within the spats for non-retractable main wheels.
After both of these projects were rejected by the Air Ministry, Boulton Paul submitted two designs with lower project numbers.
The P.100 was another advanced design. It was a tail-first aircraft, with shoulder mounted canard wings just behind the cockpit and low mounted swept back main wings near the rear of the aircraft. The vertical tail surfaces and rudders were at the tip of the swept back wings. The pilot sat in the nose, with a good view from his all round vision canopy. The P.100 had a tricycle undercarriage. In case of emergency the pilot escaped from the aircraft by jettisoning part of the lower forward fuselage and dropping down out of the aircraft.
The P.100 was to be armed with either one 47mm cannon, with a 20mm cannon on either side, two 20mm cannon with a 40mm cannon on either side, or four 20mm cannon.
The P.100 was expected to have a top speed of 298mph at 17,000ft and 435mph at 18,000ft.
In September 1942 all of the designs submitted to F.6/42 were examined at the RAE, and all of the Boulton Paul designs were dismissed for being too futuristic.