Boulton Paul Defiant ideas

[Dizzyfugu]

I'm now thinking the other way round.

What if the Defiant had been a success?
Would other manufacturers have added turrets to Spitfires, Thunderbolts, Ta 152's...
Where would you put a turret on a P39?
Can I fit a Lancaster tail turret onto the front of my long planned FW 189 Tilt Fan?
Hmmmm...

A P-47 with a Martin turret (e .g. from an A-20G, B-25 or B-26) could be an option... or maybe a F6F? Fuselage is pretty wide behind the cockpit, but I guess the firepower is not worth the extra weight and loss of performance.

There have also been tests with 4-machine-gun turrets on the Mosquito and Beaufighter - all were AFAIK relected due to the weight, drag and loss or performance, too.

[jcf]

A P-47 with a Martin turret (e .g. from an A-20G, B-25 or B-26) could be an option... or maybe a F6F? Fuselage is pretty wide behind the cockpit, but I guess the firepower is not worth the extra weight and loss of performance.

P-47? Not really as the fuselage behind the cockpit isn't actually empty, it's full of turbosupercharger. 


Nor is the F6F quite as big as it appears, a turret fighter version would require
extensive redesign and would probably have looked like a cross between an
Avenger and a Hellcat.

[Mossie]

For conversions of existing types, it's probably better to look at twin seat aircraft?  The Roc and Hotspur were both developed from two seaters and needed relatively few changes.

Conversions of single seat types needed much more changes, often whole fuselages.  The Supermarine Type 305 used the wings and horizontal tail of the Spitfire and looks very like it from above, but from the side it's a different beast: