Bristol Beaufighter

[Andrew]

There is another job which the Bristol Beaufighter excelled at, and this was the shooting down of German Bombers which carried the V1 Flying Bomb, the Bombers would fly low below Radar Detection, and just before launch they would increase height, and at that point they would be detected by Radar, but they would only be doing about 150mph, which is not a lot less than the stall speed of the Mosquito, as the Beaufighter had a lower stall speed, it was ideal for shooting these V1 Carriers down, this created another problem though, and that was when th V1 Carriers were detected by Radar, if there was no Beaufighter within range the V1 Carriers were able to get away. This was rectified by the fitting of Wellington Bombers with Airborne Early Warning Radar, which could track these Bombers no matter how low they flew.

 

[cheddar cheese]

cool, the beau was a pretty versatile plane 8)

 

[Lightning Guy]

I'm not sure, but I really doubt the Mossie's stall speed was that high. Anything that landed upwards of 100mph was considered to be a "hot ship" and clearly their landing speed was higher than their stall speed (or that would have gotten real ugly).

 

[plan_D]

I fail to see how that was versatile anyway, it's just shooting down bombers.

 

[cheddar cheese]

yes but on top of all the other things the beau did

 

[plan_D]

I know but saying it showed versatility because it shot down V-1 bombers, well it isn't.

 

[cheddar cheese]

but it could do a lot of other things too

 

[Lightning Guy]

So bring up the other things. Mention that the Beau did great work with Coastal Command making torpedo and rocket attacks on German shipping. Another instance of shooting down German planes doesn't do anything to add to its versatility. I'm with Plan_D here.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but it sure as hell packed one hell of a punch...................

 

[cheddar cheese]

yes it did

 

[plan_D]

It did but saying that because it shot down bombers which carried different loads doesn't make it a versatile aircraft. Of course it was, I'm just saying that with this thread, it isn't.

 

[cheddar cheese]

what i meant with my first post in this topic was that its more versatile than i though

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

what ever you say it doesn't change the fact that i wouldn't want to come up against, 6x .303 + 4x 20mm and a gun in a dorsal possistion, pretty dam scary.............

 

[Lightning Guy]

Excapt the the dorsal gun was only carried by the torpedo-marks and they lacked the 6 .303s in the wings. Only the fighter marks carried those.

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

Swing and a Miss. The "Torbeaus" were armes to the teeth with 6 .303 Browning machine guns, 4 20mm Hispano cannon, 8 60lb rockets, and a 1,640 (if I remember correctly) lb fish. 330mph top speed. 'Nuff said.

 

[cheddar cheese]

cool 8)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it was described once as coastal command's "punch"..............

 

[Lightning Guy]

OK, so I did some checking on the Torbeau's guns. I only have one book available that mentions anything about the Beau in detail and, according to it, it was only the fighter marks that carried the wing guns. I would be a bit skeptical of that were it not for the pictures which clearly lack guns in the wings. Also, from the pics I've seen of the rocket-equipped Beaus, it seems that the rockets would have been mounted directly under those guns and that may have caused some problems. My online search produced something interesting. According to one site, the Torbeaus had the bays for the wing guns but they were often used to carry extra fuel tanks. That may explain the discrecpancy. As for the torpedoes, I've checked four sources and none of them agree on the weight of a British torpedo.

 

[plan_D]

Swings...and it's going out of the park.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

you're obviously refering to cricket, being an englishman, i mean, why would anyone refer to baseball.............