Handley Page Hampden and Hereford

[sideshowbob9]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this but I had a dream last night. In it, I was going around some supermarket aisles and found one of those 1/100th diecast models in a clear plastic bubble-packet. It was a Hampden trainer with a trainee pilot's position in the nose, silver with yellow bands, which I thought was quite cool. Naturally I bought it! 

[Caveman]

Night fighter conversion of Hampden. Done in competition with the Blenheim NF. The slight speed advantage the Hampden had, along with the perception by pilots of its better manoeuvrability and the navigator/radar(when fitted) operator's superior visibility gave it a favourable outlook.

The two rear gunners positions were deleted and faired over - slightly improving the aerodynamics. The nose gun was also deleted as it was found to be blinding at night to pilot and navigator. A quad pack of brownings was fitted below the bomb bay (this photo shows a mock-up pack used for drag and c-of-g analysis). Ammunition was actually held in the bomb bay and the gun pack mounted to existing hard points. The opening bay doors and their respective hydraulic systems were deleted as a further weight reduction measure.

Radio and radar control equipment was moved into the nose, and even with the removal of bomb aiming kit it became quite a tight space. The heavy transmitting equipment was mounted in the ex-gunners positions. Various antennae (not yet fitted on this prototype) were mounted along the wings, tail boom and nose of the aircraft.

Speculation has it that Bristol's team were better placed to shmooze the seniors responsible for the ultimate decision on which aircraft to take into operation. And so a promising night fighter was neglected. The later beaufighter and mosquito however were much more capable and not too long in coming into service. So perhaps not much would have changed in the course of the night war.

[PR19_Kit]

    

[Old Wombat]

The fact that both the Mosquito & Beaufighter used 4 x 20mm cannon as their primary armament, rather than .303 mg's, would, probably, have been one of the principal deciding factors.

[jcf]

You could probably fit six to eight Brownings in the belly pack.

[kitnut617]

Four .5's might be good ---

[kitbasher]

I think it was during the Great Modelzone Closing Down Sale I snaffled a Hampden at a knock-down price with the intention of building a night fighter version (if the Germans could turn bombers into night fighters why not the Brits?).  The cunning plan was to have guns in the nose like the Douglas Havoc, don't remember whether the rear turret would be kept or not.  Anyway, came to nothing and the kit was sold on.

Wish I hadn't now, as an NF Hampden is a bit of a no-brainer really