History

The Bristol Beaufighter was a fighter development of the Beaufort light bomber.

The Royal Australian Air Force used imported and Australian manufactured Beaufighters in large numbers during the Pacific War.

The Munich Crisis of 1938 forced the British to improvise a fighter version of the Beaufort and development began in October 1938.

The prototype first flew on 17 July 1939 and they began entering service in July 1940. Over 5500 were manufactured in Britain and they proved very successful.

Seventy-two Beaufighters were supplied to Australia where they began RAAF operations with 30 Squadron against the Japanese from September 1942.

In 1944 and 1945 a total of 364 Beaufighters Mk.21 were manufactured in Australia for RAAF service.

This model represents British built A19-34 in service with 30 Squadron, RAAF, c.1943.

High Planes 1:72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in June 1998.

Data

MODEL: Bristol Beaufighter Ic

ROLE: Attack fighter

TIME PERIOD: 1942-1949

ENGINES: two Bristol Hercules XI radial engines of 1,185kW each

WING SPAN: 17.63m

LENGTH: 12.60m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 9435kg

MAXIMUM SPEED: 520km/h

RANGE: 1883km

CREW: 2

ARMAMENT: four 20mm cannon and six .303 machine guns

SCALE: 1/72

KIT:

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