The
Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the
Beau, was a
British long-range
heavy fighter modification of the
Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier
Beaufort torpedo bomber design. The name Beaufighter is a
portmanteau of "Beaufort" and "fighter".
Unlike the Beaufort, the Beaufighter had a long career and served in almost all theatres of war in the
Second World War, first as a
night fighter, then as a
fighter bomber and eventually replacing the Beaufort as a torpedo bomber. A variant was built in
Australia by the
Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) and was known in Australia as the
DAP Beaufighter.
| Contents- 1 Design and development
- 2 Operational service
- 2.1 Coastal Command
- 2.2 Pacific war
- 2.2.1 Southeast Asia
- 2.2.2 Southwest Pacific
- 2.3 Postwar
- 3 Variants
- 4 Operators
- 5 Survivors
- 6 Specifications (Beaufighter TF X)
|
Design and development
The idea of a fighter development of the Beaufort was suggested to the
Air Ministry by Bristol. The suggestion coincided with the delays in the development and production of the
Westland Whirlwind cannon-armed twin-engine fighter. Since the "Beaufort Cannon Fighter" was a conversion of an existing design, development and production could be expected far more quickly than with a completely fresh design. Accordingly, the
Air Ministry produced
Specification F.11/37 written around Bristol's suggestion for an "interim" aircraft pending proper introduction of the Whirlwind. Bristol started building a prototype by taking a part-built Beaufort out of the production line. The prototype first flew on 17 July 1939, a little more than eight months after the design had started, possibly due to the use of much of the Beaufort's design and parts. A production contract for 300 machines had already been placed two weeks before the prototype F.17/39 even flew.
In general, the differences between the Beaufort and Beaufighter were minor. The wings, control surfaces, retractable
landing gear and aft section of the
fuselage were identical to those of the Beaufort, while the wing centre section was similar apart from certain fittings. The bomb bay was omitted, and four forward-firing 20 mm
Hispano Mk III cannons were mounted in the lower fuselage area. These were initially fed from 60-round drums, requiring the radar operator to change the ammunition drums manually — an arduous and unpopular task, especially at night and while chasing a bomber. As a result, they were soon replaced by a belt-feed system. The cannons were supplemented by six
.303 in (7.7 mm)
Browning machineguns in the wings (four starboard, two port, the asymmetry caused by the port mounting of the landing light).
[2] This was one of the heavier, if not the heaviest, fighter armament of its time.
[citation needed] When Beaufighter were developed as fighter-torpedo bombers, they used their firepower (often the machine-guns were removed anyway) to suppress flak fire and hit enemy ships, especially escort and small vessels. The areas for the rear gunner and bomb-aimer were removed, leaving only the pilot in a fighter-type cockpit. The navigator/radar operator sat to the rear under a small
Perspex bubble where the Beaufort's dorsal turret had been.
The
Bristol Taurus engines of the Beaufort were not powerful enough for a fighter and were replaced by the more powerful
Bristol Hercules. The extra power presented problems with vibration; in the final design they were mounted on longer, more flexible struts, which stuck out from the front of the wings. This moved the
centre of gravity (CoG) forward, a bad thing for an aircraft design. It was moved back by shortening the nose, as no space was needed for a bomb aimer in a fighter. This put most of the fuselage behind the wing, and moved the CoG back where it should be. With the engine cowlings and propellers now further forward than the tip of the nose, the Beaufighter had a characteristically stubby appearance.
Production of the Beaufort in
Australia, and the highly successful use of British-made Beaufighters by the
Royal Australian Air Force, led to Beaufighters being built by the Australian
Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) from 1944 onwards. The DAP's variant was an attack/torpedo bomber known as the
Mark 21: design changes included Hercules VII or XVIII engines and some minor changes in armament.
By the time British production lines shut down in September 1945, 5,564 Beaufighters had been built in Britain, by Bristol and also by
Fairey Aviation Company, (498)
Ministry of Aircraft Production (3336) and
Rootes (260).
When Australian production ceased in 1946, 365 Mk.21s had been built.
[3][4]Operational service
Bristol Beaufighter Mk 1 in No. 252 Squadron, North Africa
By fighter standards, the Beaufighter Mk.I was rather heavy and slow. It had an all-up weight of 16,000 lb (7,000 kg) and a maximum speed of only 335 mph (540 km/h) at 16,800 ft (5,000 m). Nevertheless this was all that was available at the time, as further production of the otherwise excellent
Westland Whirlwind had already been stopped due to problems with production of its
Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines.
The Beaufighter found itself coming off the production line at almost exactly the same time as the first British Airborne Intercept (AI)
radar sets. With the four 20 mm cannon mounted in the lower fuselage, the nose could accommodate the radar antennas, and the general spaciousness of the fuselage enabled the AI equipment to be fitted easily. Even loaded to 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) the plane was fast enough to catch German bombers. By early 1941, it was an effective counter to
Luftwaffe night raids. The various early models of the Beaufighter soon commenced service overseas, where its ruggedness and reliability soon made the aircraft popular with crews.
A night-fighter Mk VIF was supplied to squadrons in March 1942, equipped with AI Mark VIII radar. As the faster
de Havilland Mosquito took over in the night fighter role in mid to late 1942, the heavier Beaufighters made valuable contributions in other areas such as anti-shipping, ground attack and long-range interdiction in every major theatre of operations.
In the Mediterranean, the
USAAF's 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons received 100 Beaufighters in the summer of 1943, achieving their first victory in July 1943. Through the summer the squadrons conducted both daytime convoy escort and ground-attack operations, but primarily flew defensive interception missions at night. Although the Northrop
P-61 Black Widow fighter began to arrive in December 1944, USAAF Beaufighters continued to fly night operations in Italy and France until late in the war.
By the autumn of 1943, the Mosquito was available in enough numbers to replace the Beaufighter as the primary
night fighter of the RAF. By the end of the war some 70 pilots serving with RAF units had become aces while flying Beaufighters.
The Beaufighter is listed in the appendix to the novel
KG 200 as having been flown by the German secret operations unit
KG 200, which tested, evaluated and sometimes clandestinely operated captured enemy aircraft during
World War II.
[5]Coastal Command
1941 saw the development of the
Beaufighter Mk.IC long-range heavy fighter. This new variant entered service in May 1941 with a detachment from
No. 252 Squadron operating from
Malta. The aircraft proved so effective in the Mediterranean against shipping, aircraft and ground targets that Coastal Command became the major user of the Beaufighter, replacing the now obsolete Beaufort and Blenheim.
Coastal Command began to take delivery of the up-rated
Mk.VIC in mid 1942. By the end of 1942 Mk VICs were being equipped with torpedo-carrying gear, enabling them to carry the
British 18 in (457 mm) or the US 22.5 in (572 mm) torpedo externally. The first successful torpedo attacks by Beaufighters came in April 1943, with
No. 254 Squadron sinking two merchant ships off Norway.
The Hercules Mk XVII, developing 1,735 hp (1,294 kW) at 500 ft (150 m), was installed in the Mk VIC airframe to produce the
TF Mk.X (Torpedo Fighter), commonly known as the "Torbeau". The Mk X became the main production mark of the Beaufighter. The strike variant of the "Torbeau" was designated the
Mk.XIC. Beaufighter TF Xs would make precision attacks on shipping at wave-top height with torpedoes or
"60lb" RP-3 rockets. Early models of the Mk Xs carried metric-wavelength ASV (air-to-surface vessel) radar with "herringbone" antennae carried on the nose and outer wings, but this was replaced in late 1943 by the centimetric AI Mark VIII radar housed in a "
thimble-nose" radome, enabling all-weather and night attacks.
The North Coates Strike
Wing of Coastal Command, based at
RAF North Coates on the Lincolnshire coast, developed tactics which combined large formations of Beaufighters using cannon and rockets to suppress flak while the Torbeaus attacked at low level with torpedoes. These tactics were put into practice in mid 1943, and in a 10-month period, 29,762 tons (27,000 tonnes) of shipping were sunk. Tactics were further adapted when shipping was moved from port during the night. North Coates Strike Wing operated as the largest anti-shipping force of the Second World War, and accounted for over 150,000 tons (136,100 tonnes) of shipping and 117 vessels for a loss of 120 Beaufighters and 241 aircrew killed or missing. This was half the total tonnage sunk by all strike wings between 1942-45.
Pacific war
The Beaufighter arrived at squadrons in Asia and the Pacific in mid-1942. It has often been said - although it was originally a piece of RAF whimsy quickly taken up by a British journalist - that
Japanese soldiers referred to the Beaufighter as "
whispering death", supposedly because attacking aircraft often were not heard (or seen) until too late.
[6] The Beaufighter's
Hercules engines used
sleeve valves which lacked the noisy valve gear common to
poppet valve engines. This was most apparent in a reduced noise level at the front of the engine.
Southeast Asia
In the
South-East Asian Theatre, the Beaufighter Mk VIF operated from
India on night missions against Japanese lines of communication in Burma and Thailand. The high-speed, low-level attacks were highly effective, despite often atrocious weather conditions, and makeshift repair and maintenance facilities.
Southwest Pacific
Before DAP Beaufighters arrived at
Royal Australian Air Force units in the
South West Pacific theatre, the Bristol Beaufighter Mk IC was employed in anti-shipping missions.
The most famous of these was the
Battle of the Bismarck Sea, where they were used in the fire-suppression role in a mixed force with USAAF
A-20 Boston and
B-25 Mitchell bombers.
No. 30 Squadron RAAF Beaufighters flew in at mast height to provide heavy suppressive fire for the waves of attacking bombers. The Japanese convoy, under the impression that they were under torpedo attack, made the fatal tactical error of turning their ships towards the Beaufighters, leaving them exposed to
skip bombing attacks by the US
medium bombers. The Beaufighters inflicted maximum damage on the ships' anti-aircraft guns, bridges and crews during strafing runs with their four 20 mm nose cannons and six wing-mounted .303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns. Eight transports and four destroyers were sunk for the loss of five aircraft, including one Beaufighter.
Postwar
From late 1944, RAF Beaufighter units were engaged in the
Greek Civil War, finally withdrawing in 1946.
The Beaufighter was also used by the air forces of
Portugal,
Turkey and the
Dominican Republic. It was used briefly by the
Israeli Air Force.
Variants
- Beaufighter Mk IF
- Two-seat night fighter variant.
- Beaufighter Mk IC
- The "C" stood for Coastal Command variant; many were modified to carry bombs.
- Beaufighter Mk II
- However well the Beaufighter performed, the Short Stirling bomber program by late 1941 had a higher priority for the Hercules engine and the Rolls-Royce Merlin XX-powered Mk II was the result.
- Beaufighter Mk IIF
- Production night fighter variant.
- Beaufighter Mk III/IV
- The Mark III and Mark IV were to be Hercules and Merlin powered Beaufighters with a new slimmer fuselage carrying an armament of six cannon and six machine guns which would give performance improvements. The necessary costs of making the changes to the production line led to the curtailing of the Marks.[7]
- Beaufighter Mk V
- The Vs had a Boulton Paul turret with four 0.303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns mounted aft of the cockpit supplanting one pair of cannon and the wing-mounted machine guns. Only two (Merlin-engined) Mk Vs were built. R2274 when tested by the A&AEE was capable of 302 mph at 19,000 ft.[8]
- Beaufighter Mk VI
- The Hercules returned with the next major version in 1942, the Mk VI, which was eventually built to over 1,000 examples.
- Beaufighter Mk VIC
- Torpedo-carrying variant dubbed the "Torbeau".
- Beaufighter Mk VIF
- This variant was equipped with AI Mark VIII radar. Changes included a dihedral tailplane.[9]
- Beaufighter Mk VI (ITF)
- Interim torpedo fighter version.
- Beaufighter TF Mk X
- Two-seat torpedo fighter aircraft. The last major version (2,231 built) was the Mk X, among the finest torpedo and strike aircraft of its day. The later production models featured a dorsal fin.[10]
- Beaufighter Mk XIC
- Built without torpedo gear for Coastal Command use.
- Beaufighter Mk 21
- The Australian-made DAP Beaufighter. Changes included Hercules CVII engines, four 20 mm cannon in the nose, four Browning .50 in (12.7 mm) in the wings and the capacity to carry eight 5 in (130 mm) High-Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVAR), two 250 lb (110 kg) bombs, two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs and one Mk 13 torpedo.
- Beaufighter TT Mk 10
- After the war, many RAF Beaufighters were converted into target tug aircraft.
Operators
Survivors
National Museum of the United States Air Force
- The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio has completed the restoration of a rare Beaufighter Mk I. The aircraft is displayed as the USAAF Beaufighter flown by Capt. Harold Augspurger, commander of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, who shot down an He 111 carrying German staff officers in September 1944. The Beaufighter went on display on 18 October 2006.
- The National Museum of Flight at East Fortune Airfield, east of Edinburgh, has a Beaufighter TF X (RD220). It is currently on display under restoration.
- The Royal Air Force Museum in London, UK has Beaufighter TF X, RD253, on display along with a Bristol Hercules engine. This aircraft flew with Portuguese Air Force as BF-13 in the late 1940s. It was used as an instructional airframe before its return to the UK in 1965. Restoration was completed in 1968, using components scavenged from a wide variety of sources.
- The Canada Aviation Museum presently is storing Beaufighter TF X RAF serial RD867 for future restoration. The museum aircraft is a semi-complete RAF restoration with no engines, cowlings or internal components, received in exchange for a Bristol Bolingbroke on 10 September 1969.
- A privately owned Beaufighter is currently undergoing a lengthy restoration in the UK. Its owner hopes to eventually restore it to flying condition.[11]
- There are two Beaufighter Mk XXI aircraft on static display in museums in Australia, one at Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, Australia.[12] and the other at Camden.[13]
- The Midland Air Museum, Coventry, England has a Beaufighter cockpit section on public display. Its identity is thought possibly to be T5298.
Specifications (Beaufighter TF X)
Orthographic projection of the Beaufighter TF Mk.X, with inset profiles of Mk.I(F), Mk.II(F) and Mk.V and of "thimble" and "herringbone" radar installations.
Data from Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II
[14] General characteristicsPerformance- Maximum speed: 320 mph (280 kn, 515 km/h) at 10,000 ft (3,050 m)
- Range: 1,750 mi (1,520 nmi, 2,816 km)
- Service ceiling: 19,000 ft (5,795 m) without torpedo
- Rate of climb: 1,600 ft/min (8.2 m/s) without torpedo
Armament- 1 × manually-operated Vickers GO or .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning for observer
- 1 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo
Unknown
