10 Interesting and fun Airplane Facts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dficR-DGG1w
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As some of you may know my
father Capt. A. Emil Sztanyo, was a WWII Night Fighter pilot in the renowned
415th NFS formed in Feb of 1943.
Since the US didn’t have any good platforms for an operational Night
Fighter aircraft when the war started, our Night Fighter Squadrons deployed
using British made Bristol Beaufighters dubbed “Whispering Death.” How many Night Fighter pilots were
there? Well, there were 91,000 +
aviators trained in the US for WWII but only 450 trained as Night
Fighters. If you saw what they flew, and
what the technology available was, you would have simply said no, NO, hell No!!!!! You and I would not do it, since the
equipment and mission seemed like a rendezvous with death. Here below is a bit
more on the Bristol Beaufighter’s American pilots during the war.
Bristol Beaufighter
·
The British Bristol Beaufighter
filled the need for an effective night fighter in the U.S. Army Air Forces
until an American aircraft could be produced. The Beaufighter had first entered
operational service with the Royal Air Force in July 1940 as a day fighter.
Equipped with a very early Mk IV airborne intercept radar, the powerful and
heavily armed night fighter version entered service just as the Luftwaffe (German air force) began its "Blitz" night attacks
against London in September 1940. Beaufighter crews accounted for over half of
the Luftwaffe bombers shot down during the Blitz.
When the USAAF formed its first radar-equipped night
fighter squadron in January 1943, the only American night fighter available was
the makeshift Douglas P-70, a modified A-20 bomber using the U.S. version of
the Mk IV radar. After initial training in the P-70, the first USAAF night
fighter squadrons went to war in the more capable British Beaufighter.
The 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons
received more than 100 "reverse Lend-Lease" Beaufighters. They
arrived in the Mediterranean during the summer of 1943, achieving the first
victory on July 24. Through the summer, they conducted daytime convoy escort
and strike missions, but thereafter flew primarily at night. Although
purpose-built American P-61 Black Widow night fighters began to replace them in
December 1944, USAAF Beaufighters continued to fly night cover for Allied
forces in Italy and France until the closing days of the war.
The museum's aircraft was built under license by the Fairey
Aviation Co. in Stockport, England, and delivered to the Royal Australian Air
Force in 1942. It is marked as the USAAF Beaufighter flown by Capt. Harold
Augspurger, commander of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, who shot down an He
111 carrying German staff officers in September 1944.
TECHNICAL NOTES (Data for Beaufighter Mk.VIf):
Crew: Two (pilot and radar operator)
Armament: Four 20mm Hispano cannon in the fuselage and six .303-cal
Browning machine guns in the wings
Engines: Two 1,670-hp Bristol Hercules
Maximum speed: 337 mph
Ceiling: 26,500 ft.
About 8 hulls survive
The Survivors: Bristol Beaufighter – The “Whispering Death” of the
Pacific and Beyond!
Reportedly dubbed “Whispering Death” by
Japanese ground forces due to its quiet engines (courtesy of engine sleeve
valves), fast and powerful Bristol Beaufighter heavy
fighters were flown by Allied pilots to strike Axis shipping and ground targets
in the European, North African, Mediterranean and South West Pacific theatres
of World War Two. I can picture Beaufighter pilots attacking in waves, one wave
knocking out flak guns, with others following, firing rockets and torpedoes
along the way without mercy! By the way, that nickname was most likely given by
an Australian wartime journalist rather than the enemy but has pretty much
stuck ever since!
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