Boulton Paul Defiant Walkaround

[nuuumannn]

At last! During my recent UK trip I got the opportunity to get close to the last surviving Defiant. Here are some images from the resulting walkaround. Link at the bottom.

N1671 134

N1671 11

N1671 23

N1671 92

N1671 108

N1671 94

Link to text and walkaround page:

http://warbirdswalkaround.wixsite.c...g-Road-to-Redemption-The-Boulton-Paul-Defiant

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely shots!

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff Grant. Fortunately one of the better-lit areas of Hendon.

 

[Airframes]

It's now at Cosford, Andy, which is much better lit, and better access, than Hendon.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. I see now that the background is a bit different than the pictures I took at Hendon (below). That said, the Defiant was pretty well lit at Hendon when I was there in 2015.

 

[Thorlifter]

Good stuff. Thanks for the pics

 

[nuuumannn]

Yep, I took these pics while at Cosford, other aircraft from the Battle of Britain Hall, where your pic was taken, Andy have also been moved there. I also did walkarounds of the Ju 88, Me 262, Bf 109G and Ki-46, which will appear in due course.

There was a bit of a hue and cry when the Battle of Britain Hall reopened and an entirely new exhibition space was created as people complained that the aircraft had been removed, as they had, but of all the aircraft that were in that hall, the Lysander and the Walrus or Seagull V are the only ones not on display. The Lizzie is undergoing restoration. The rest of the aeroplanes are either still at Hendon or at Cosford. The only actual Battle of Britain veterans that were in the hall are at Hendon in the centre of the main building in a circle; the Bf 109E, a Spitfire Mk.I and Hurri Mk.I and a Fiat CR-42. It could be argued that the Defiant is a BoB vet as it was delivered to 303 Sqn at the end of September 1940, but there's no evidence it actually flew ops at that time.

Oh, it wasn't easy taking those photois either; because the aeroplane is black, it just absorbed all the light and in post production I had to fiddle with contrast and brightness to get some of the detail visible. To the aeroplane's right is a bright light source in the form of windows, which wash out detail on the aircraft's left owing to strong backlighting.