Just listning to a film on the Pacific War as in WWll. They said that the 'merikins flew B-17's and B24's and P-38. Along with the Austrailian "Bow Fighters".
Prey tell are "Bow Fighters" the crew or the type of plane??
If type of plane, discribe, if not what did they fly?
WildCard is this up your alley?

 

You speaketh of the Bristol Beaufighter. It was a long range twin engine fighter that served with great distinction with a number of RAAF Squadrons.



You can read a bit more here.....
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-...eaufighter.htm

 

The Beaufighter was based on the Beaufort bomber, and was one of the very few aircraft Britain had prior to the actual war.



S

 

There's one being restored up the road from me...

Only one I have seen in the flesh - even if it is in bits at the moment (actually it might be partly assembled now days - I have not had time to have another look..)

Have a look at:

http://www.filton.flyer.co.uk/bristol/survb152a9141.htm

Cheers

 

They had one in restored form in King George Square back in the days when I worked at BCC, about 10 years ago now. It was fascinating. And reading the mission reports really takes you back in time.

My wifes Uncle helped restore a Mosquito down at Point Cook. He is currently restoring the "pod" of a De-Haviland Vampire jet in his back yard, for an Air Museum. I'll prolly take Wildcard 'round to have a look during the holidays.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Mark,

Wasn't that a Lookheed Hudson in King George Square??

Cheers

 

My Dad built Beauforts at the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF) at Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne during the war. I believe the Beaufighter was built next door at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC).

There is a story that the Jap trops called the Beaufighter "Whispering Death", because you couldn't hear them coming. If you check the photo above, you'll see the propellers are in front of the nose, so you don't get that drumming sound of the prop wash beating against the fuselage. They were supposed to be a good weapons platform.

Both GAF and CAC had an excellent record in making aircraft under licence. Because the Australian aircraft were essentially hand-made, finish was significantly better (particularly in terms of the flying surfaces) than the original US and British models. This made them measurably faster than the originals. GAF went on to produce the Lincoln and Canberra bombers, as well as the Jindivik drone aircraft. The Australian Canberra was much faster than the original British version. I remember being taken to GAF as a kid, and I say guys hand-beating aerofoil sections over sandbags. You could run your hands over the flying surfaces and they were as smooth as silk. I have read that the CAC version of the F86 Sabre was the best to fly.

 

Yeah, you might be correct. Might have even been a Boston bomber?. I remember seeing it in pre-restored form in a private tour of a hanger at Amberly during my "flying days" in the Air cadets. It was as it was, straight out of the swamp in PNG when they recovered it.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Thank you guys. I'm sure I got the right crew to ask, giving me more info then I could have asked for. Come to think of it where else could a car thread give a man this kind of aero info in just a flash.

That's a plane I never saw before. Very interesting the theory about the prop wash against the hull. Kind of piggy looking but it must have been one hell of a weapons platform.

Maybe like a WWll version of the A10. Gets ya home, even all shot up. The plane not you.

They didn't show these aircraft in the movie I saw, just mentioned them. Anyone know what engines they used?

Thanks again, knew I could count on you.

 

Are you telling me that there was a fabric over wood JET?

 

With acknowledgement to: http://www.raafmuseum.com.au/raaf2/h...dy_beauf-8.htm

"A8 Beaufighter (Aust)
Although the number A7 was allocated through 1926-46 and the Beaufort became A9 in 1941, the prefix A8 was not used until 1944 when the Department of Aircraft Production Bristol Beaufighter 21 joined the RAAF. This anomaly came about when the numbers A8 to A12 were reserved in the late 1930s, because aircraft such as the A11 Southampton and A12 Bulldog were still in service.
In 1942, the British-built Beaufighter began operating with the RAAF under the designation A19. These aircraft proved to be extremely effective in operations, and DAP planned to produce an Australian version when the Beaufort contracts were completed. As a precaution against the unavailability of Hercules engines, a Fairey-built Beaufighter IC, A19-2, was fitted with Wright Double-row Cyclone engines. Subsequent trials proved quite successful, but the supply of Hercules never failed, and A19-2 remained a "one-off" experiment for the Australian Beaufighter.

Following the decision in January 1943, to commence Beaufighter production, the Bristol Company dispatched the drawings by Airgraph and some 55,000 miniature negatives were sent to DAP. Originally, it was planned to produce an Australian equivalent of the British Beaufighter, Mk VII, but throughout 1943 innovations such as dive-brakes and rocket projectiles began to be introduced. Mks VIII and IX were similarly superseded and finally a version basically similar to the British Beaufighter TF, Mk X, was produced and designated DAP Bristol Beaufighter 21. Unlike the British version, the ASV seamer and dorsal fin were never applied to the DAP Model. However, like the Mk Xs used by the RAAF in Europe all the Hercules XVIIs had their two-speed blowers made fully operational, thus becoming Hercules XVIIIs.

The first DAP Beaufighter was flown on May 26 1944, and five days later, the aircraft was taken over by the RAAF. As production mounted in the Fishermen's Bend and Mascot factories, the Australian A8 Beaufighter began to replace the British A19 Beaufighter. The smooth running sleeve-valve engine and the devastating fire-power of cannon, rockets and machine-guns had already earned the Beaufighter the title of "Whispering Death" and the Australian version continued to wreak great havoc throughout New Guinea, the Celebes and the Philippines. The aircraft served with Nos 22, 30, 31, 92 and 93 Sqns, and when production ceased at the end of 1945, a total of 364 DAP Beaufighters had been built.

In the post-war years, Beaufighters continued to operate with No 30 Sqn, and they were gradually relegated to a target-towing role. Although most of the aircraft were withdrawn from service in 1955-56, two Beaufighters, A8-357 and 363, continued to be used at Woomera for missile aerial recovery duties, and these aircraft operated with Kangaroo roundels. The last aircraft, A8-357, was flown to Edinburgh for disposal by Wg Cdr Williamson on December 9 1957. One Australian-built Beaufighter, A8-328, has recently been located in a dilapidated condition at Portsea, Victoria, and it is believed that efforts are being made to restore this aircraft for historical display.

TECHNICAL DATA:
(DAP Beaufighter)

DESCRIPTION: Two-seat strike fighter

POWER PLANT: Two Briston Hercules XVIII radial engines.

DIMENSIONS: Span, 57 ft 10 ins; length, 44 ft 8 ins; height 15 ft. 19 ins.

WEIGHTS: Empty, 15,600 lb; loaded 25,150 lb.

PERFORMANCE: Max speed, 320 mph at 10,000 ft. Climb, 35 mins to 5,000 ft. Range, 1170 miles. Service ceiling 19,000 ft.

ARMAMENT: Four 20 mm cannons in fuselage nose and four 0.5 in. guns in the wings. A 0.3 in. gun could be mounted in the rear capola and eight rockets plus two 250 lb bombs could also be carried. "

 

The wealth of knowledge of everyone here never ceases to amaze me. Interesting reading that's for sure.

Merry Christmas everyone... I'll be offline for a while.. see you in the New Year.

sco

 

Thaks Labrat, that covers all I'd need to know. Hope they get the one they found restored. Hate to see it when examples of such fine old machinery disapers forever.