BOULTON PAUL DEFIANT MK.1

• Manufacturer: Airfix
• Scale: 1/48
• Step By Step Level: Intermediate
• Presented By: Bobby waldron
• Number of Episodes: ongoing
• Camera Angels: 3
• Camera Definition: Full HD & 4K
• PE Parts Used: No
• painting Mask Used: No
• Resin Parts Used: No
• Kit Used No: A05128a

The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a “turret fighter” to meet the RAF requirement for day and night fighters that could concentrate their firepower on enemy bombers which were not expected to have fighter escorts due to the distance from Germany to the United Kingdom. The Defiant had all its armament in a dorsal turret offering the ability to fire in most directions. The same principle was used in the Royal Navy‘s Blackburn Roc which was also built by Boulton Paul.

In combat, the Defiant was found to be effective at destroying unescorted bombers, the role it was designed for,^[2] but was vulnerable to the Luftwaffe‘s more manoeuvrable, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters operating from bases in Northern France, allowing them to escort bombers to London, although with fuel for only ten minutes of flying time there. The Defiant had been designed only to destroy unescorted bombers by means of beam or ventral attacks,^[2][3] and had no forward-firing armament; it proved to be very vulnerable to frontal attacks by fighters in daylight combat. It was withdrawn from daytime operations for use as a night fighter, and found success in combination with the use of aircraft interception radar (A.I.) to locate the enemy.^[4] It eventually equipped thirteen squadrons in this role,^[5] compared to just two squadrons as a day-fighter,^[6] though this was mainly due to slow initial production.^[7] In mid-1942 it was replaced by better-performing night fighters, the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito.^[5] The Defiant continued to find use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots it had the nickname “Daffy”.^[8]