They hoped to gain publicity for it by winning the outstanding prize for the first non-stop Atlantic crossing but a first flight accident made them miss their opportunity.

The publicity associated with the first non-stop Atlantic crossing, which came with the additional bonus of the £10,000 prize for the first such flight by a British aircraft on offer by the Daily Mail since before the war, was sought by many companies.

The two 450 hp (336 kW) Napier Lion water-cooled engines were mounted on top of the lower wings just inside the innermost interplane struts.

In the first prototype, the machine intended for the Atlantic crossing attempt, there was a windowed cabin immediately behind the cockpit with positions for a radio operator and navigator, one of whom could also act as relief pilot.

[3] The Atlantic used a split axle arrangement: on each side the short main leg extended from below the forward and innermost interplane strut.

There was a second member back to below the aft interplane strut and an axle from the large single wheel upwards and inwards, hinged to the lower fuselage longeron.

Before they could complete it, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown had made the first non-stop Atlantic crossing in their Vickers Vimy on 14–15 June 1919 and Boulton & Paul abandoned their preparations.

It was never fitted out as an airliner, Boulton & Paul realising that different companies might want different layouts, but a separate fuselage mock-up was built and artists' impressions had been released earlier.

[1] Despite the safety features provided by the two engines and the Atlantic's ability to hold altitude on one, plus its high cruising speed and (non-fuel) disposable load of 1,870 lb (848 kg), economics were against it when competing with the single Lion powered de Havilland DH.18 which carried eight rather than seven passengers.