The Boulton Paul Defiant was a British fighter aircraft and bomber interceptor used early in the Second World War. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter" and served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during Battle of Britain.
The concept of a turret-armed defensive fighter emerged in 1935, at a time when the RAF anticipated having to defend Great Britain against massed formations of unescorted enemy bombers. Advances in aircraft design during the 1920s and 1930s resulted in a generation of multi-engined bombers that were faster than the single-engined biplane fighters in service. The RAF believed that its turret-armed bombers, such as the Vickers Wellington, would be able to penetrate enemy airspace and defend itself without fighter escort and also that the German Luftwaffe would be able to do the same.
In theory, turret-armed fighters would approach an enemy bomber from below or from the side and coordinate their fire. The separation of the tasks of flying the aircraft and firing the guns would allow the pilot to concentrate on putting the fighter into the best position while the gunner could engage the enemy. Previously the Hawker Demon had tested the concept with 59 of the biplane fighters (manufactured by Boulton Paul under a sub-contract) equipped with a powered rear turret while the remainder of the series already manufactured were converted
In October 1939 No. 264 Squadron was reformed at RAF Sutton Bridge to operate the Defiant. Initial training and development of tactics began with other aircraft as it only received their first Defiants in early December at Martlesham Heath. They began night fighter training in February 1940. The squadron tested their tactics against British medium bombers - Hampdens and Blenheims - and 264's CO flew against Robert Stanford Tuck in a Spitfire showing the Defiant could defend itself by circling and keeping its speed up. By March, 264 Squadron had two flights operational with Defiants and No. 141 Squadron received its first Defiant.
The first operational sortie came on 12 May 1940. Flying with six Spitfires of 66 Sqn, a Ju 88 was shot down over Holland. The following day in a repeat patrol, after claiming four Ju 87 they were attacked by Bf 109Es. The Spitfires were unable to prevent five of the six Defiants being shot down by a frontal attack. During the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, the Squadron was forward based at RAF Manston one of the 16 Squadrons that No. 11 Group had available to cover the evacuation. On the 27th 264 Sqn claimed 3 He 111 and 2 damaged. On the 28th, shortly after take-off ten Defiants were attacked by about 30 Bf 109s - forming a circle, six German fighters were claimed for the loss of three Defiants. The Defiant was initially successful against enemy aircraft. Its best day was 29 May 1940, when No. 264 Sqn claimed 37 kills in two sorties: 19 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers mostly picked off as they came out of their dives, nine Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engined heavy fighters, eight Bf 109s a Ju-88. One Defiant gunner was lost after he bailed out though the aircraft made base to be repaired.
Initially, Luftwaffe fighters suffered losses when "bouncing" flights of Defiants from the rear, apparently mistaking them for Hurricanes. The German pilots were unaware of the Defiant's rear-firing armament and encountered concentrated defensive fire. With a change in Luftwaffe tactics, opposing fighters were able to out-manoeuvre the Defiant and attack it from below or dead ahead, where the turret offered no defence. Defiant losses quickly mounted, particularly among the gunners who were often unable to leave stricken aircraft. The additional weight of the turret and the second crewman plus the aerodynamic drag, gave the Defiant lower performance than conventional fighter aircraft. According to the book The Turret Fighters by aviation historian Alec Brew, 264 Sqn. developed a counter against single-seat aircraft such as the Bf 109. By flying in an ever-descending Lufberry circle, Defiant crews sacrificed the advantage of height but eliminated the possibility of attack from underneath, while giving 360° of defensive fire. This tactic was used successfully by 264 Sqn. but when the Defiants of 141 Sqn. were committed to combat a few months later during the Battle of Britain, it chose to ignore their advice with devastating consequences. On 19 July 1940, six out of nine Defiants of 141 Sqn. sent to cover a convoy off Folkestone were shot down and the remaining three only survived due to the intervention of Hurricanes of 111 Sqn. The Hurricanes reported that the Defiants had shot down four Bf 109s. Although 264 Sqn. claimed 48 kills in eight days over Dunkirk the cost was high with 14 Defiants lost. The actual German losses were no more than 12 to 15 enemy aircraft; the turret's wide angle of fire meant that several Defiants could engage the same target at one time leading to multiple claims.
264 Squadron lost two aircraft on 26 August and five on 28 August with the deaths of nine crew members. With these losses, the Defiant - which had been intended from the start as a day and night fighter - was transferred to night fighting and there the Defiant achieved some success. Defiant night fighters typically attacked enemy bombers from below, in a similar manoeuvre to the later successful German Schräge Musik methods. Defiants attacked more often from slightly ahead or to one side, rather than from directly under the tail. During the winter Blitz on London of 194041, the Defiant equipped four squadrons, shooting down more enemy aircraft than any other type. The turret-fighter concept was not immediately discarded and the fitting of Defiant-type turrets to Beaufighter and Mosquito night fighters was tried to enable these aircraft to duplicate these methods but the effect on performance proved drastic and the idea was abandoned. The Defiant Mk II model was fitted with the AI Mk IV airborne interception radar and a Merlin XX engine. A total of 207 Mk II Defiants were built.
After 1941, the Defiant found use in gunnery training, target towing, ECM and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots, it had the nickname "Daffy", probably a dimunitive of the word "Defiant".
General characteristics
Crew: 2: pilot, gunner
Length: 35 ft 4 in (10.77 m)
Wingspan: 39 ft 4 in (11.99 m)
Height: 11 ft 4 in (3.46 m)
Empty weight: 6,078 lb (2,763 kg)
Loaded weight: 8,318 lb (3,781 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 8,600 lb (3,909 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V12 engine, 1,030 hp (768 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 304 mph (264 knots, 489 km/h) at 17,000 ft (5,180 m)
Cruise speed: 175 mph (225 knots, 417 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,570 m)
Range: 465 mi (404 nmi, 749 km)
Endurance: 1.78 hr
Service ceiling: 31,000 ft[28] (9,250 m)
Power/mass: 0.124 hp/lb (204 W/kg)
Climb to 15,000 ft (4,600 m): 8.5 min
Armament
Guns: 4 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in hydraulically-powered dorsal turret (600 rpg)
Original FS98 model creator: Glenn McDonald.
All reworked to CFS1 with new textures, and damage profile: Edmundo Abad 2010.
This virtual model is up-scaled to obtain a better view in Combat Flight Simulator.
(for accurate scale in FS98, replace the file BP_Defiant.MDL by BP_Defiant.old.MDL and rename this as BP_Defiant.MDL)
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This virtual model represent the Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I # PS+V, of 264 squadron, RAF Kirton in Lindsey airfield, July 1940.
I have included new textures, moving parts and damage profile for use with CFS1, with armament of four 7.7 mm (.303 in) machine gun on upper turret.
Special thanks to Christian Maas for his excellent tool Hex-editor XVI32 and Chuck Dome by his MDL file viewer. Without their tools, I might not have been able to assign new textures to the original model.
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Installation FS98/CFS
1. Unzip to Temporaly directory "Defiant(cam).zip".
2. Copy "Defiant(cam)" folder to X:\CFS\aircraft directory.
