Whiffs found surfing

[DogfighterZen]

Check out this Stealthy Draken
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZG62BN

That's looking very good! Makes me regret selling the Heller kit i had...

[Doug K]

Check out this Stealthy Draken
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZG62BN

Oh I like that!

[Weaver]

Posted on Twitter by @ushimodels here: https://twitter.com/ushimodels/status/1426541682917478404?s=20

Twitter translation of Ushi's tweet:

"1/72 Beriev B-10M resin kit completed. It is a fighter planned in 1941 aiming for the fastest at that time. It was not developed due to the overly ambitious design of the skewer-shaped twin-engine propulsion system."

[Tophe]

Good and rare twin-boom model

[zenrat]

Oooh, I like that.

[NARSES2]

Oooh, I like that.

As do I. Attractive model of a really interesting aircraft 

[ericr]

 
beautiful floatplane

[scooter]

Oooh, I like that.

Turboprop'd interceptor for the PRDV?

[zenrat]

Oooh, I like that.

Turboprop'd interceptor for the PRDV?

Maybe something similar.  Having used the central nacelle for the recce GB i have the rest of an Fw 189 spare and it is a similar shape.  Just add fuselage with engines.

[Nick]

We might have seen this before but it's so good it deserves another look. RAAF Beaufighter target tug with folded wings.
https://www.marceldulong.com/plastics/raaf-target-towing-bristol-beaufighter

[PR19_Kit]

Superb modelling with that Beaufighter, but even our own Rheged would have a job working up a logical reason for an RAAF one to need folding wings I'm sure.   

[Rheged]

Superb modelling with that Beaufighter, but even our own Rheged would have a job working up a logical reason for an RAAF one to need folding wings I'm sure.   

I'll take that as a challenge!!

[JayBee]

We might have seen this before but it's so good it deserves another look. RAAF Beaufighter target tug with folded wings.
https://www.marceldulong.com/plastics/raaf-target-towing-bristol-beaufighter

Indeed, nothing beats a pair of big Bristols.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Superb modelling with that Beaufighter, but even our own Rheged would have a job working up a logical reason for an RAAF one to need folding wings I'm sure.   

Very narrow hangars...

[Rheged]

The reason for  the RAAF owning folding wing Beaufighters is really quite simple.

   The Beau was first flown as a night fighter by the RAF in late 1940, and as such attracted the attention of both the USAAF  and USN  military attaches at the US London embassy.    Even before the USA  entered World War 2, the USAAF was urgently planning a twin engined, long range, night fighter based on those attaches' reports.  The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force website states that " The British Bristol Beaufighter filled the need for an effective night fighter in the U.S. Army Air Forces until an American aircraft could be produced. When the USAAF formed its first radar-equipped night fighter squadron in January 1943, the only American night fighter available was the makeshift Douglas P-70, a modified A-20 bomber using the U.S. version of the Mk IV radar ; so the first USAAF night fighter squadrons went to war in the more capable British Beaufighter.   The 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons received more than 100 "reverse Lend-Lease" Beaufighters.  Although purpose-built American P-61 Black Widow night fighters began to replace them in December 1944, USAAF Beaufighters continued to fly night cover for Allied forces in Italy and France until the closing days of the war.

            In June 1941, the Beaufighter-equipped  272 Squadron of  Coastal Command, based on Malta, claimed the destruction of 49 enemy aircraft and the damaging of 42 more. They were also very effective throughout the Mediterranean against Axis shipping and ground targets. This was reported on by USN observers who described the Beau as "a versatile and  powerful anti shipping strike aircraft" which should be acquired for the USN.  However, enmity between USAAF and USN over   aircraft acquisition and operation meant that  (put very simply)   any aircraft under USN command had to operate from an aircraft carrier.    A batch of 15 folding wing Beaufighters was therefore ordered  as the initial stage of an attempt to circumvent this ruling . These were actually produced to Bristol's design by Westland .

            At this point sanity briefly prevailed in the ongoing battle between USAAF and USN and a compromise was  reached whereby the US Marine Corps would operate land based  Beaufighters , technically "owned" by the Army  Air Force but tasked by the Navy.  The US Marines operated over 150 anti-shipping  Beaufighters in South East Asia and the Pacific with great success. Although the folding wing aircraft were allocated to the Marines, their non-standard wing-fold mechanism made maintenance difficult. As a result, all 11 remaining machines were written off charge  when an American aircraft transport docked in Sydney, and they were  immediately "assimilated" into the RAAF, who rapidly discovered that the  folding wings meant that they could accommodate  twice as many airframes in a given hanger space. 

So really it's all very simple. Folding wing Beaufighters in Australian Air Force markings  happened because of the never-ending strife between two branches of the US armed Forces.