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Old 09-18-2017, 08:09 AM
  #14776  
Ernie P.
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Originally Posted by Hydro Junkie
Gee, how about a few more clues, just for good measure:
1) This plane had a very distinctive shape
2) This plane had a crew of two(not four like my beloved Prowlers)
3) This plane had a single engine, using the same engine as several other more famous aircraft
4) This plane had a flaw in it's design that resulted in it's being assigned to a different type of combat mission than it was originally planned to perform
5) This plane, like the big four engine bombers, was flown by a pilot who was, more or less, just a chauffeur for the other crewman, the person that really "took care of business"
6) This plane, initially, took heavy losses in combat. It's mission change ended the huge losses issue and made it a viable combat aircraft
7) From this plane's deployment to it's mission change, only 9 months had elapsed
8) Even with the mission change, this plane was only used in combat for 3 years
Good Luck
I had intended to sit this one out, but I just don't seem to be able to resist a good question. How about the turret fighters; either the Boulton Paul Defiant, or it's Fleet Air Arm counterpart, the Blackburn Roc? Thanks; Ernie P.

The Boulton Paul Defiant was 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", without any forward-firing guns, a concept successfully used in the First World War-era Bristol F.2 Fighter and also implemented by the Royal Navy's Blackburn Roc.In combat, the Defiant was found to be reasonably effective at its intended task of destroying bombers but was vulnerable to the Luftwaffe's more manoeuvrable, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters.

The lack of forward-firing armament proved to be a great weakness in daylight combat and its potential was realised only when it was converted to
night fighting
. It was supplanted in the night fighter role by the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito. The Defiant found use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots it had the nickname "Daffy".


The Blackburn B-25 Roc was a BritishSecond World War-era Fleet Air Armfighter aircraft designed by Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. It took its name from the mythical bird of the tales of the Arabian Nights, the Roc. Derived from the Blackburn Skua and developed in parallel, the Roc had its armament in a turret. The Roc came to be viewed as inferior to existing aircraft such as the Skua and the type had only brief front line service.