Boulton Paul Defiant?

Not sure what you mean by this. Most of our effort was under our TD membership. Outside Developer sounds a little too professional ;)

My mistake. I didn't realize that you guys were officially part of DT.

In any case, the B-24D stands as one of the finest examples of a flyable aircraft in the game. Certainly professional quality, even if you call yourselves amateurs!

If somebody builds it, sure, but it doesn't seem likely.

There weren't a lot of Defiants built, they only equipped a few squadrons, they were an operational failure during daylight operations, and they were mostly used for the one time period and in the one theater which IL2 ignores - 1939-40 Western Front.

So, not exactly a priority to get into the game.

That said, I've got a soft spot for the Defiant, and for the P.94 (the Defiant variant with turret removed and guns in the wings).

The Defiant did quite well as a night fighter, and allegedly could give a good account in fighter vs. fighter combat if flown using the proper defensive tactics.

The P.94 was almost as fast as the Spitfire, but not quite as maneuverable. It would have been an interesting "compromise" between the Hurricane & Spitfire in terms of how it fought & flew. It would make a fascinating "what-if" airplane to add to the game.

I wouldn't call Monguse an amateur; he might stop sorting me out. Amateur works for me though ;)

As to the Defiant, it got a new lease on life as a night fighter (not sure if with radar), and I believe it was one of the aircraft used to create the D-Day diversions. I think it was equipped with some kind of spoof or ECCM gear. Not very exciting for fighter pilot scraps. The gear probably displaced the gunner. I think the turret also use in other aircraft--Halifax and some British Liberator II?

Whats in store for the next update. i have a lot of books with good pics and diagrams of the b-17,b-29,sb2c-5,pbm-5 mariner,meteor jet british, also a lot of gunner stations pics.

http://forum.warthunder.com/index.ph...light-manuals/ not my website but good info.

The most extensive use of the Defiant, Henley and Skua was as target tugs towing drogues for trainee pilots to shoot at. These were not front line duties, but they were very important, and may have been significant in the achievement of allied air superiority in the late years of the war.

The Defiant Mk.II night fighter, with turret and AI Mk. IV Airborne Interception radar, was the most effective British night fighter during the "Winter Blitz" German night bombing campaign of 1940-41, and over 200 Mk. IIs were built.

The turret allowed the Defiant to attack from below, just like the later German "schrage musik" gun installations.

In many ways, the Defiant was like the Bf-110 - quite good in its intended role as bomber interceptor, but dead meat in a fight with a competently flown single-seat fighter.

It was withdrawn from frontline service in 1943, but after it was phased out as a night fighter it was used for ECM & ECCM duties.

Boulton Paul produced a number of different turrets. I'm not sure how much they differed from each other.

I repeat, the main use of the Defiant was not in combat, it was as a target tug for training.

There were 1060 Defiants built, most of them were built as dedicated tugs, and most survivors of earlier versions were converted to tugs.

It would IMHO be a more useful thing to have an AI target tug version of the Defiant (or a Henley or Skua) for training in the sim than to have a flyable barely used fighter version.

Saying that the Defiant night-fighter was the most effective British night-fighter of the winter 1940-1941 is a condemnation of the British night-fighting effort of that period, not a vindication of the Defiant (though I'm sure the crews did their best with what they had), it was designed as a day interceptor of unescorted bombers, but the German bombers weren't unescorted.

I agree that a what-if forward gunned Defiant would have probably been a useful fighter in the early war, but unfortunately it never happened as a squadron aircraft.