A/C recognition help please

[Steve Darlow]

Hi

Help required as to what the attached aircraft is. It has been annotated as Boulton Paul Defiant, but the turret looks unfamiliar to me. Any Defiant buffs out there?

With thanks

Steve Darlow

[dp_burke]

It is clearly a Defiant fighter, note the large underbody radiator tub and the two piece landing gear doors.

The odd thing as you do point out is the normal glazed four gun turret appears to be replaced by a single weapon turret. Or perhaps that is not a gun but some other device. It might have been a trial armoured turret.

Send the photo to these chaps, they might be able to help:
http://www.boultonpaul.com/

Dennis

[SteveB]

I am not a Defiant expert but in "The Defiant File" by Alec Brew, Air Britain there is a similar photo and the caption states that the Defiant prototype K8310 was experimentally fitted at AAEE Boscombe Down with a Type F turret equipped with a single 20mm Hispano cannon.

Steve

[Amrit1]

In Alec's The Turret Fighters he states that the turret was a Type A that had been fitted with a single 20mm (renamed Type N - the BP Type F was a nose turret). As well as being tested on K8310 before the war it was tested on N1622 in 1941.

Interestingly, Wallace Clarke, in British Aircraft Armament Vol 1, claims there are no picsof this setup!!

A

[Steve Darlow]

Thank you for all that advice gentlemen. That certainly helps and much appreciated.