The Bristol Beaufighter is a British two-seat heavy fighter (night fighter) that was also used as a torpedo bomber and light bomber during the war. The aircraft was truly multipurpose, but went down in history mainly for the reason that it became the first production combat aircraft in history to have a radar on board. The presence of an airborne radar was typical for the Bristol Beaufighter Mk IF version, which was successfully used as a two-seat night fighter.
At the time of the outbreak of World War II, it was Great Britain that was one of the main leaders in the field of radar. The armed forces of this country at that time had the opportunity to use an extensive network of radars warning of an air attack, radars were used quite massively on warships of the British Navy, in aviation and in air defense. It was the British armed forces that were among the first in the world to use radars in wartime, largely predetermining the development of radar for many years to come.
The first aircraft radar, designated AI Mark I, entered service on June 11, 1939. Due to its heavy weight (about 270 kg) and rather large dimensions, and also for the reason that an additional crew member was required to maintain it, the radar station could only be installed on heavy Bristol Beaufighter interceptor fighters, which were created on the basis of the bomber- torpedo bomber Bristol Beaufort. It was on the heavy fighter Beaufighter that the British tested the new system, of all types of aircraft that were at the disposal of the Royal Air Force at that time, this particular machine was best suited for this.
Radar antenna AI Mk. IV in the bow of a Bristol Beaufighter
In May 1940, even before the start of the air "Battle of Britain", a new model of the onboard radar, the AI Mark II, entered service with the RAF. 6 squadrons of fighter-interceptors were equipped with such airborne radar stations. And the first British truly mass aviation radar (Airborne Interception radar) was the AI Mark IV model (had working indexes SCR-540 or AIR 5003). This model of the radar began to enter service in July 1940. The radar operated at a frequency of 193 MHz and at a power of 10 kW provided the detection of air targets at a distance of up to 5.5 kilometers. In total, about 3 thousand stations of this model were produced, they were massively installed on the Bristol Beaufighter, Bristol Beaufort, de Havilland Mosquito, Lockheed Ventura and Douglas A-20 Havoc aircraft.
It is worth noting that in the USSR, when installing an airborne radar on an aircraft, they faced the same problems as the British. The station set with power supplies and cables weighed about 500 kg, so it was impossible to install it on single-seat fighters of its time. As a result, it was decided to install such equipment on a two-seat dive bomber Pe-2. It was on this plane that the first domestic radar "Gneiss-2" appeared. The radar was installed on the Pe-2R reconnaissance modification, in this configuration the aircraft could be used as a night fighter. The first Soviet airborne radar station "Gneiss-2" was put into service in 1942. In just two years, more than 230 such stations were assembled. And already in the victorious 1945, the specialists of the Fazotron-NIIR enterprise, which is now part of KRET, launched the production of the new Gneiss-5s radar, the target detection range of which reached 7 kilometers.
Heavy two-seat fighter Bristol Beaufighter
The new design of the Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter was born as the fruit of improvisation by the company's designers Roy Fedden and Leslie Fries. By that time, the company, located on the outskirts of the city of the same name in the southwestern part of England, had actually completed work on the project of a torpedo bomber under the designation Beaufort. The proposal of the designers of the Bristol company was to use the ready-made torpedo bomber units in the design of a new heavy fighter. The main essence of their idea was to borrow the wing, empennage elements and chassis of the Beaufort model in combination with a power plant consisting of two Hercules piston engines. The company's engineers believed that the representatives of the British Air Force would be interested in a new well-armed multifunctional aircraft, and they were right.
Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF
Draft proposals for the new aircraft were ready in just a few days, after which on October 8, 1938, they were presented to the employees of the British Ministry of Aviation. After reviewing the drawings, the ministry placed an order for 4 experimental aircraft. The leadership of the British Air Force was impressed by the novelty, especially they were delighted with the strong firepower of the vehicle. It was clear that the new aircraft could fill the vacant RAF niche of a long-range heavy fighter.
The first experienced two-seater heavy fighter, the Bristol Beaufighter, took to the skies on 17 July 1939. The aircraft was a cantilever all-metal midwing (with the exception of the steering surfaces, which had linen skin) with a traditional semi-monocoque and tail-type fuselage design. The power elements of the fuselage, located along the bottom, carried a concentrated load in the form of 20-mm aircraft cannons. The landing gear of the aircraft was retractable, tricycle with a tail wheel. The main landing gear was folded back into the engine nacelles, and the tail wheel was retracted into the fuselage of the vehicle. The plane's brakes were pneumatic.
The two-spar wing of a heavy fighter consisted of three main parts - a central section and two consoles with detachable tips. The central section of the wing was the basis of the entire structure of the machine, it was to it that the engine nacelles with engines, consoles, the front and rear parts of the aircraft fuselage, and the main landing gear were attached. The entire wing of the heavy two-seater fighter had a working skin, which increased its maneuverability. The aircraft nacelles housed two Bristol Hercules 14-cylinder double-row radial piston engines. The engine was very successful and was mass-produced in the UK in various modifications, more than 57 thousand of these engines were produced in total. The four experimental Beaufighters were fitted with three different modifications of the engines presented; the third and fourth aircraft received Hercules II engines. Fuel for the engines was located in four welded aluminum tanks equipped with a self-tightening coating: two (885 liters each) were located in the central section of the wing, one with a capacity of 395 liters in the consoles.
Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF
Comments on the airframe of the new aircraft based on the test results turned out to be insignificant. The only changes were related to the increased keel area and the introduction of a more rigid elevator control circuit. Also, with a focus on the future, the chassis was updated, which received a larger shock absorber travel. This was done taking into account the further possible increase in the mass of the aircraft and the mitigation of strong impacts that could be noted during heavy landings at night.
The power plant of the aircraft caused much more questions, which became the subject of special concern. The first prototype demonstrated a speed of 539 km / h during testing at an altitude of 5120 meters. But the problem was that the prototype in full combat gear only reached 497 km / h at an altitude of 4580 meters. This speed somewhat disappointed the military, especially considering that the engines of the next stage of the Hercules III, which developed a maximum power of about 1500 hp at altitude, could not significantly improve the situation. In addition, Hercules engines were needed for installation on other production vehicles, which could lead to problems. As a result, it was decided that some of the Beaufighters would initially be equipped with Rolls-Royce Merlin XX engines, the first serial modification of the Merlin engine with a two-speed supercharger.
Another important problem was the choice of the composition of the heavy fighter's armament. Since the very first version of the aircraft, the Beaufighter Mk IF, was considered as a night fighter (the military quickly realized that there was enough space inside the fuselage to accommodate a bulky radar to intercept air targets), this ordered the machine to provide a concentration of high-density fire. Such a concentration of fire was necessary to ensure the destruction and incapacitation of enemy aircraft immediately after the fighter's radar-guided fighter reached the optimal distance for opening fire. Search and sighting radar - radar (AI) Mk IV - was placed in the forward fuselage. Four 20-mm Hispano Mk. I aircraft cannons, located in the lower nose of the fuselage, became the standard armament of the Mk IF variant. The guns had drum power magazines for 60 rounds. After the release of the first 50 serial fighters, the Beaufighter's armament was further strengthened by adding six 7.7-mm Browning machine guns at once, four of which were located in the right wing console, and the remaining two in the left. This made the Bristol Beaufighter the most heavily armed fighter used by the RAF during World War II.
Quite large orders were received for the aircraft, which required the deployment of three assembly lines at once: at the Bristol plant located in Filton, at the new plant in Westen super Mare (Somerset), and also at the Fairey plant in Stockport (Lancashire). During the war, many modifications of the Beaufighter aircraft were implemented, which assumed various options for combat use. For example, due to the urgent need for a day long-range fighter for battles in the Sahara and the Mediterranean, about 80 aircraft of the Mk IF model were adapted for flying in the sands, and their flight range was increased by placing an additional fuel tank with a capacity of 227 liters in the fuselage.
In total, from May 1940 to 1946, 5928 Beaufighter aircraft of various modifications were produced. After the end of the war, these aircraft were used, among other things, as towing aircraft for air targets. The last Bristol Beaufighter aircraft were decommissioned in Australia in 1960.
Combat use of Bristol Beaufighter with radar
Since the design of the aircraft very widely used parts and elements of the Beaufort bomber-torpedo bomber that was already mass-produced at that time, the appearance of the Beaufighter in the army was not long in coming. It took only about 13 months from the moment of the first flight to the moment of the appearance of a new heavy fighter in the army, the plane had time for the beginning air Battle of Britain. Beginning in September 1940, the first British fighter squadrons began to arm themselves with production vehicles.
Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF
On September 8, 1940, the first heavy two-seat fighters with the "magic mirror", as the pilots called it, began to enter service with the 600th Air Defense Squadron for military trials. Since November of the same year, production of the "radar" version of the Beaufighter became serial. On the night of November 19-20, the first successful combat interception of an air target with the help of the aircraft's airborne radar took place. During combat patrols, radio operator Sergeant Phillipson reported to pilot Lieutenant Canningham that an aerial target was observed five kilometers to the north. The pilot changed course and, passing through a continuous ridge of clouds, approached the aircraft observed on the radar screen, which soon became visible to the naked eye. Canningham recognized the German Ju.88 twin-engine bomber in the enemy. Remaining unnoticed by the enemy crew, he approached the bomber from behind and from a distance of 180 meters fired a volley from all available barrels. On the morning of the next day, the wreckage of the downed Junkers was found near the town of Wittering.
Until May 1941, pilot John Canningham, with a new radio operator, Sergeant Roneley, won 8 more air victories. All in all, on account of this British ace, who was nicknamed "the pilot with cat's eyes", by the end of the war there were 19 enemy aircraft shot down, which he destroyed in night battles, he shot down most of the enemy aircraft while flying a heavy fighter Beaufighter.
The appearance of the "magic mirror" revolutionized the tactics of night air combat. As the number of fighters with radar in British aviation increased, so did the losses of German bombers. If, during the Battle of Britain, the Hurricanes and Spitfires defended Great Britain from daytime attacks by the Luftwaffe, then in the following months the Beaufighters showed the Germans that it would not be possible to bomb English cities with impunity at night. By the spring of 1941, six air defense squadrons were armed with Beaufighters. Of these, the 604th Squadron, which by that time was commanded by John Canningham, showed the highest performance.
Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF
By June 1, 1941, the crews of Canningham's squadron shot down 60 enemy aircraft. At the same time, the squadrons, armed with the heavy fighter Bristol Beaufighter, recruited only the highest class pilots. In order to become a pilot of a night fighter, a candidate needed to have flown at least 600 hours, of which at least 30 hours of blind flights, as well as 40 landings at night. Despite such criteria for selecting disasters and accidents, taking into account night fighters in those years, they were not uncommon, moreover, the Beaufighter was distinguished by strict control and had insufficient directional and lateral stability.
It is also worth noting that during the first months of combat use, "Beaufighters" achieved greater success without the aid of the radar than with it. The thing is that interceptions only using the Mk IV radar were ineffective at that time, this was explained, among other things, by the shortcomings of the early radar model. This continued until January 1941, when a ground interception control service was deployed in England. Ground control posts began to withdraw night fighters from the radar into the detection zone of enemy aircraft. In these conditions, the combat potential of the "Beaufighters" was revealed in full and they began to justify the hopes placed on them. In the future, their successes only grew, until on the night of May 19-20, 1941, the Luftwaffe, during its last big raid on London, lost 26 aircraft, 24 of which were shot down by British night fighters and only two cars fell victim to anti-aircraft fire from the ground.
Flight performance of the Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF:
Overall dimensions: length - 12, 70 m, height - 4, 83 m, wingspan - 17, 63, wing area - 46, 73 m2.
Empty weight - 6120 kg.
The maximum take-off weight is 9048 kg.
Power plant - 2 PD 14-cylinder Bristol Hercules III with a capacity of 2x1500 hp.
The maximum flight speed is 520 km / h.
Cruising flight speed - 400 km / h.
Practical flight range - 1830 km.
Practical ceiling - 9382 m.
Armament - 4x20-mm Hispano Mk. I automatic cannons (60 rounds per barrel) and 6x7, 7-mm Browning machine guns.
Crew - 2 people.
