Another about my WWII favorite, the Bristol Beaufighter. From the now defunct magazine "Wings." Pity it folded, it was a great magazine.
20 YEARS OF SERVICE
The Amazing Career of the Beaufighter
The Bristol Beaufighter was everything it was designed to be and more. Blunt, tenacious, versatile, it would perform more types of missions than its designers ever imagined. Conceived in the outset of the Second World War, it would still be soldiering on long into the jet age.
In 1938, the Bristol Aircraft Company submitted a proposal to meet the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) need for a cannon-armed fighter. In the rush to rearm prior to the war, the RAF saw that cannons were needed to knock down the new breed of bombers that Nazi Germany was fielding. Bristol proposed a variation of its successful Beaufort torpedo bomber as just the thing the RAF needed.
Bristol originally envisioned using most of the main components of the Beaufort, thus saving both design and development costs associated with the introduction of a new aircraft. By using the same wings, rear fuselage and tail unit, Bristol sought to use the same tooling jigs already producing the Beaufort. The RAF expressed reservations about the size of the proposed fighter; a twin-engined, two-place was thought to be rather large for a fighter, but since Bristol planned to put at least four 20mm cannon in the new fighter, the RAF gave the go-ahead for production in 1939.
Design Changes
As the design progressed from proposal to bending metal, the need for many changes became obvious. For example, the decision to use more powerful Hercules VI radial engines than the originally suggested Hercules II made the use of a larger propeller mandatory. To ensure proper ground clearance for the new larger props, the engine nacelles were moved from underneath the wing to a mid-wing mount. The repositioned nacelles required the gear oleo legs be lengthened.
Even though the RAF was primarily interested in getting a cannon-armed fighter into squadron service in the least amount of time possible, a secondary armament of eight .303 Browning machine guns was always considered a necessity. The machine guns could add additional weight of firepower when going against bombers, but could also be useful for ground attacks against troops. In that scenario, the punch of the 20mm’s wasn’t as effective as the ability to spray lots of lead over a large area.
Originally, Bristol planned to put the eight guns in a protruding belly blister. The RAF’s Air Ministry thought this protrubance would add to drag and slow down the big fighter more than desired. Instead, the Air Ministry asked Bristol to place the machine guns in the wings. Bristol, however, protested the change since they were well into the construction of the prototype. Incorporating four machine guns in the port wing would mean a delay since the gun placement meant repositioning the large landing light. Instead, Bristol asked to only place two guns in this wing and the requested four in the starboard wing. In order to keep development on track, the Air Ministry agreed, thus the Beaufighter would pack a powerful, if asymmetrical punch of four 20mms in the nose and six .303 machine guns in the wings. This was the most powerful standard armament of any Allied fighter aircraft of the war.
All of these changes substantially altered the original design proposal, subsequently very few parts of the Beaufort were interchangeable with the new fighter, so it acquired its own name, the Beaufighter in May, 1939.
Mission Changes
After the prototype first flew in October 1939, the RAF’s concerns about the feasibility of a big, twin-engined aircraft successfully competing in the fighter arena solidified. A maximum speed of 335 mph at 16,800 was short of the desired goal of 350 mph. Although the Beaufighter handled reasonably well according to Bristol’s chief test pilot, C.F. Uwins, it suffered from longitudinal instability and was not maneuverable enough to serve as a day fighter. The instability mentioned would plague the Beau throughout its career, giving it a reputation for being a handling handful during take-offs and landings.
Quoting from a 1940 Air Fighting Development Unit pilot report, the Beaufighter
“was found to handle as described in the handbook, but the stall is not so vicious as stated. Nevertheless, there is a feeling that the aircraft is a heavily loaded one and care must be taken when near the ground to maintain full flying speed or the aircraft will drop out of your hands. The take-off is straightforward, although there is a slight tendency for the aircraft to swing to starboard; this is easily corrected by use of the rudder.”
As 1939 turned into 1940, the RAF realized that it was woefully unprepared for night fighting, particularly in defensive operations. Air Marshall Dowding and other RAF leaders realized that the magnificent Chain Home radar stations that would play a crucial role in the forthcoming Battle of Britain. They also knew that if they were successful in thwarting the Germans from attacking Britain during the day, then the Germans would surely turn to night bombing where the frontline fighters of Spitfires and Hurricanes would be nearly useless.
The rudimentary airborne radars then under development required a fairly large aircraft to accommodate the bulky equipment, aerials and additional operator. The Beaufighter was a fairly large aircraft in need of a new mission and thus was born a match made, if not in heaven, then certainly fortuitous.
During the first several prototypes testing regime, the RAF adapted the Beau as a nightfigher and urged Bristol to speed both testing and production to equip newly forming frontline night fighter squadrons.
By late fall of 1940, the first Beaus, designated MK IF, were flying night patrols. On the night of 19/20 November, a 604 Squadron Beaufighter piloted by Flight Lieutenant John Cunningham and radar operator (R/O) Sergeant John Phillipson achieved the first radar-assisted Beau kill. This form of electronic warfare became known as airborne interception (AI).
The Beau would go on to be the primary nightfighter for the RAF until the introduction of the De Havilland Mosquito in late 1943. Even after the ‘Mossie’ came into service, the Beau soldiered on in its first combat role until nearly the end of the war.
Even while Bristol scrambled to fill the orders for MK IF nightfighters, the RAF realized the Beau was a marvelous platform for a variety of other attack missions. Coastal Command, responsible for patrolling the sea lanes so vital for the very survival of Britain, became the next user. In the MK IC model, Coastal Command squadrons began patrolling the vast expanse of the Bay of Biscay, searching for German Kreigsmarine U-boats.
Besides searching out the menacing U-boats, Beaufighters still wound up being pressed into service as fighters while serving in Coastal Command. German Ju-88s were plentiful, seeking out Allied merchant convoys to bomb and strafe. Many times, Beaus found themselves the only protection a convoy had from a harassing enemy strike aircraft. The Beaus generally acquitted themselves well in these aerial combats.
As the war progressed, the Beaufighter expanded its offensive capabilities. The striking power of the heavy armament was impressive especially once rockets were added. These 60lb. armor piercing and high explosive projectiles added a substantial punch. Devastatingly effective against both ground and maritime targets, the rockets inspired confidence in its crews and dread in the enemy. Also, by 1944, the Beau began carrying torpedoes to further increase the damage it could inflict.
Following the war, most Beaufighters were either scrapped or turned into target tugs. A few soldiered on in smaller nation’s air forces, but the vast majority faded away.
Variants
As mentioned above, the first models were the MK IF nightfighter and MK IC Coastal Command strike aircraft. The MK I can be easily distinguished by its flat tailplanes. These 0 degree of incidence horizontal stabilizers contributed to the Beau’s squirreliness in the pitch axis. Much work went into trying to correct this fault.
The MK II was a Merlin-engined version. At the outset of production, Bristol and the RAF feared that the Hercules engines would not be available in sufficient numbers to equip all the new Beaufighter units, so the legendary Merlin of Spitfire, Hurricane, P-51 Mustang and Lancaster fame was adapted to the Beau’s frame. In a rare instance of not really improving the design, the MK II had an even worse reputation for handling than did the Hercules-powered versions.
With powerful engines and large propellers providing thrust at the extreme front and the rest of the large aircraft trailing aft, the gyroscopic effect was tremendous and contributed greatly to the Beaus reputation for difficult handling. The MK II’s Merlin nacelles were even longer than the radial Hercules’ so the handling was commensurately worse. The MK IIs saw only limited front line service before being relegated to training roles.
MK III and IV were proposed ‘slim’ fuselage developments but were never actually built.
The MK V was an aberration that assuaged the RAF’s love affair with putting turrets on fighters. Like the earlier Boulton-Paul Defiant single-engine fighter, the single turreted Beau was not successful and only two were built.
The MK VI was the first mark to get most of the Beau’s faults corrected. Most noticeable is the 12 dihedral of the tailplanes. This simple modification went a long way to minimize the pitch sensitivity of Bristol’s big fighter. Many of the earlier MK I and IIs were retrofitted with the angled horizontal stabilizers.
Later versions of the MK VI had increase range but at the expense of firepower. Long range tanks were fitted into the wing machine gun bays. Using a cruise speed of 243 mph, these MK VIs had a range of 1,810 miles compared to 1,480 in earlier marks.
The MK VII was a one-off turbo supercharged Hercules powered version with four bladed props. MKs VIII and IX were reserved for Australian production but the designations were never used.
MK X Beaufighters at first differed from their siblings by the fitting of a more powerful Hercules XVII engine modified for low altitude operations. In addition to carrying a torpedo or a 500 lb bomb on the centerline, two 250 lb bombs could be carried under the wings.
Later MK Xs had a dorsal fin extension fitted. This additional longitudinal structure helped improve the Beau’s handling even more once larger weapons loads of 1,000 lb bombs on each wing. The last Beaufighter built on September 21, 1945 was a MK X.
The MK 21 was an Australian-built version of the Beaufighter and was essentially the same as a MK X with the exception of a noticeable ‘bump’ on the nose that housed a Sperry autopilot. Well over 5,000 Beaufighters were built from 1939-1945 with Australia producing 364 of those under license
Operators
In addition to the RAF, Beaufighters served in the air forces of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), the Portuguese Navy, Turkey, Israel (IAF) and the Dominican Republic.
The British forces, including the RCAF, RNZAF and RAAF, saw combat with all versions in every theater of the war. The USAAF equipped four nightfighter squadrons in the Mediterranean and eventually European theater.
Turkey acquired nine RAF machines during the war and purchased an additional 23 in 1946. Very little is known of how the Turkish Air Force operated these machines or for how long.
10 Beau MK Xs saw service under Dominican Republic colors. They saw action at least once. On June 20, 1949, some of the Republics Beaus, flying in concert with Fuerza Aerea Dominicana (FAD) Mosqitoes attacked a Guatelamlan invasion force. Strafing a PBY, the strike helped to repulse the invasion. The last FAD Beaus were retired in 1954.
Israel smuggled four Beaufighter MK Xs into Israel in the summer of 1948. After numerous ground attack sorties, including one remarkable incident when ex-RAF pilot Len Fitchett out maneuvered an Egyptian Sea Fury single engine fighter at low level. Fitchett’s adroit handling of the Beau caused the Fury to stall while lining up for a shot. The Egyptian pilot stalled and crashed into the Red Sea off the coast of Israel. Sadly, Fitchett was killed shortly thereafter while conducting another ground attack mission.
By November of 1948, the IAF’s Beaus were no longer logistically maintainable and were struck off charge. In 1994, the remains of Fitchett’s Beaufighter was discovered during construction work in southern Israel. The scattered bits and pieces are now on display at the IAF Museum at Hazterim, Israel.
The Portuguese Navy received 16 MK Xs during March, 1945. They flew them on maritime patrol and long-range fighter missions. One crashed in October of that year, killing its pilot, 1Lt Felix Lobo and two other crewmembers.
In 1946, Portugal bought a replacement for the destroyed Beau. By 1949, a lack of spares
and qualified pilots grounded the Portuguese Beaus. One of them was given back to the RAF and is on display in the RAF’s Museum at Hendon, England. Another was traded to South Africa for a Spitfire for Portugal’s Air Museum. The rest were scrapped.
The Crews’Comment
American pilot George “Ghost” Aubill recalls that the Beaufighter had “wonderful visibility, everything was easy to see including the plate-sized marine compass. It was a lot of fun on the deck, but since it didn’t have superchargers, it was underpowered at altitude.”
Three kill pilot Dr. Harold Augspurger says the aircraft “wouldn’t stay trimmed up no matter what you did. You had to work the throttles and brakes carefully once the tail dropped on landing. Likewise, the rudder wasn’t really effective until the tail came up, but once you were out of those situations, the Beau flew just fine. It wasn’t heavy on any axis and had very good visibility.”
Portuguese Naval pilot 2Lt Manuel Beja once had an engine pack up while on a long cross-country flight. The other engine was spewing oil at an alarming rate and the engine temperature rose drastically. Thinking he wouldn’t be able to recover at his base, he ordered his radio operator to bail out.
Beja skillfully recovered the smoking Beaufighter at the naval station at Portela, Portugal. As soon as he landed and shut down, he egressed the aircraft, thinking that the oil-starved engine might still burst into flames. As he got to the hatch, Beja tripped over his radio operator! The terrified crewman had been too frightened to jump and had huddled by the hatch until Beja found him. He scooped up the hapless operator and beat feet away from the oil-covered, smoldering Beau.
Peter Weston, an RAF navigator flew in some of the last Beaufighter combat missions. While ferrying new Bristol Brigand strike aircraft out to Malaya to deal with a communist insurgency in 1950, he flew almost a dozen missions in the Beaufighter’s rear cockpit familiarizing himself with the terrain and operations in the theater. Once he saw how best to conduct operations against the Malayan rebels, he then trained the former Beau crews in the new Bristol aircraft.
He recalls, “The Beau would overhear in a hurry if you dawdled on the ground for any length of time. In the hot, humid climate of Malaya, we didn’t mess about once we started engines.”
The last Beaufighters to fly were based at RAF Selatar, Singapore in May 1960. Selatar had a reputation for seeing off many famous aircraft – the Spitfire, the Mosquito and the Short Sunderland flying boat all flew their last flight at this station.
Two Beaus trundled about serving as target tugs until at last the Beaus’ time had come. On May 16, 1960, a last hurrah of a formation flight around the area showed the Beau in its element for the final time. After landing, they were immediately scrapped. Thus, the Beaufighter served a full military career of 20 years more than justifying the RAF’s belief in the big fighter project.
Sidebar – Sleeve Valve Radial Engines
Unlike a conventional radial engine with its valves mounted on the top of each cylinder, a sleeve valve radial contains the valves in a sleeve mounted between the piston and the cylinder. Using a smaller crank that turned at half the speed of the crankshaft, the sleeve moved in an elliptical path, lining up ports on the sleeve with the cylinder that allowed fuel and air to enter the cylinder and expelled the exhaust at the completion of the power stroke.
The advantage of the sleeve valve is improved volumetric efficiency because the sleeve’s larger ports improved gas flow into and out of the cylinder and created a higher compression ratio. Aerodynamically, the sleeve valve radial presented a smaller frontal area and thus created less drag for the aircraft to overcome.
On the negative side, however, sleeve valved engines used more oil, cost more to manufacture and were a nightmare to maintain in the field and the design rapidly fell out of favor following World War II.
Chart - Beaufighter Mk VIF specifications
Wingspan 57ft 10in
Length 41ft 4in
Height 15ft 10in
Weight empty 14,069lbs
Weight-max 20,800lbs
Max speed 333mph
Service ceiling 26,500ft
Range 1,480 miles
Powerplants 2 x Hercules VI or XVII
Max horsepower 1670bhp @7500rpm
AI (radar) Mk IV (US - SCR-540) or Mk VII (US - SCR-720)
Armament 4 x 20mm, 6 x .303
