And the Defiant it is. So , what gave it away, just out of curiosity?
Time to go over the clues:
1) This plane had a very distinctive shape The turret gave the plane a "camel-backed" appearance
2) This plane had a crew of two(not four like my beloved Prowlers) It was manned by a pilot and turret gunner
3) This plane had a single engine, using the same engine as several other more famous aircraft It was powered by the Merlin
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 Lack of forward firing fixed guns made the plane an easy mark for the German ME/BF-109 pilots when attacking from the front
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" The "big four engine bombers" were the Lancaster, B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator, narrowing down the search to WWII
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 It was converted to a night fighter
7) From this plane's deployment to it's mission change, only 9 months had elapsed It was deployed to front line squadrons in December 1939 and pulled from service the first time in August 1940
8) Even with the mission change, this plane was only used in combat for 3 years It was finally retired from combat in 1942 though some were used through the war to pull airborne targets or drop life boats in the air/sea rescue role
I guess this means Ernie's up
Last edited by Hydro Junkie; 09-18-2017 at 11:45 AM.