Doh! I forgot that one too.
I look at lots of stuff and then forget that I have. Its when you start forgetting things you've
made that you start wondering what your synapses are doing with all their spare time
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Aiming High - the Boulton Paul Defiant 'High Fighter'In the Summer of 1941, Boulton Paul turned its attention to high-altitude fighter concepts. The prompt was Junkers Ju-86Ps flying over Britain at 41,000 feet or more. Some conceptual work was done on adapting the
Paladin airframe for a mildly pressurised cockpit. [1] However, it seemed unlikely that the
Paladin's wing would be sufficient to lift a high-altitude fighter to its 41,000 feet operating height. Attention then turned back to the original
Defiant wing.
The
Defiant wing had little more area than the
Spitfire wings on the
Paladin. However, the
Defiant wing had separate outer panels. By simply designing extended-span outer panels, a high-altitude fighter could be created comparably quickly. The Wolverhampton design office considered their 'High Fighter' a
Defiant conversion rather than a
Paladin. And there was something to that ... but retaining the
Defiant serial number was also something of a dodge. In doing so, Boulton Paul could claim that it was simply modifying a company demonstrator airframe for trials rather than creating a new aircraft which had yet to received Ministry of Aircraft Production approval.
Unfortunately for BP, by the time that their
Defiant 'High Fighter' could demonstrate its abilities, prototypes of the extended-span Supermarine
Spitfire Mk.VI were already flying. In many ways, the
Defiant 'HF' was superior at high altitude [2] but the
Spitfire Mk.VI was first, required minimal airframe modification, and, most importantly, had already been chosen for production by the RAF. In the end, all Boulton Paul gained was some pressure cockpit experience ... but at the cost of the ire of MAP officials.
Top Defiant 'High Fighter' conversion prototype in its experimental 'high-altitude blue' scheme. Note the extended-span outer wing panels. This aircraft was unarmed and carried neither 'ringed-P' prototype markings nor its RAF serial.
Last of the Breed - the Boulton Paul Paladin PR Mk.VIWith its long-range and relatively capacious fuselage, the potential for a photo-reconnaissance variant of the
Paladin was obvious from the outset. The first were armed
Paladin FR Mk.IIIs with F24 cameras in their rear fuselages. The first dedicated photo-reconnaissance variant was the
Paladin PR Mk.VI. Unarmed, the
Paladin PR Mk.VI was equipped with larger-format, longer-lensed F52 cameras. The
Paladin PR Mk.VI employed D type 'wet' wings adding a further 66 Imperial Gallons to fuel load. Using a mid-sized slipper tank as well, the
Paladin PR Mk.VI could photograph Königsberg. With the larger slipper tank, the aircraft could reach Tromsř.
Bottom A
Merlin 61-powered
Paladin PR Mk.VI photo-recce aircraft in standard, overall 'PR Blue' scheme and low-visibility national markings.
The long-range of the
Paladin PR Mk.VI worked against it. Most photographic targets could be reached by PR
Spitfires using the same 'wet' wings and slipper tanks. For the even longer range targets, the RAF had come to prefer the added safety margin provided by the twin-engine
Mosquitos. As MAP looked to reduce the total number of airframes in production, their gaze naturally fell upon Boulton Paul. Orders for
Paladins were curtailed and production wound down at Wolverhampton. However, Boulton Paul was down but not out ...
(To be continued ...)
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[1] This system was devised using information gleaned from work done by RAE's High Altitude Research Department in the RAE pressure chamber at Farnborough.
[2] Some of that 'superiority' was based on performance estimates. Boulton Paul's request for the supply of a high-altitude rated 1,415 hp
Merlin 47 engine with 4-bladed Rotol propeller was never granted.
