Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "Bristol Beaufighter NF Mk. V; How to Use ‘Good’ Ideas to Ruin an Aircraft" video.

  1. Actually thought the RAF might be on to something with turreted night fighters. Lock the turret facing forward with the guns elevated. You've got Schrage Musik before the Luftwaffe invented it. Once the concept is proven on things like the Mark V, you substitute a pair of fixed Hispanos for the turret, add the new radar and Bob's Your Uncle!
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  2. It is a L scope (a pair of A scopes). The left shows the range to the target, the right the relative altitude. The relative size of the "horns" shows whether the target is to the left or right. As shown in the video, the target is dead ahead and flying higher. "A slightly modified version of the K-scope was commonly used for air-to-air and ground-search radars, notably in AI radars and ASV radars - (Air-Surface Vessel). In these systems, the K-scope was turned 90 degrees so longer distances were further up the scope instead of further to the right. The output of one of the two antennas was sent through an inverter instead of a delay. The result was that the two blips were displaced on either side of the vertical baseline, both at the same indicated range. This allowed the operator to instantly see which direction to turn; if the blip on the right was shorter, they needed to turn to the right. These types of displays were sometimes referred to as ASV-scopes or L-scopes, although the naming was not universal"
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  3. At that point in the war, the US had no 50 calibers to spare to give to Britain. They asked and were told "no". It wasn't until much later in the war that some late models Spits had 2 Hispanos and 2 Brownings in the E wing and the Canadian built Mark X Lancs had a Martin twin 50 upper turret. "E type Structurally unchanged from the C wing, the outer machine gun ports were eliminated, although the outer machine gun bays were retained and their access doors were devoid of empty cartridge case ports and cartridge case deflectors. The inner gun bays allowed for two weapon fits; 2 × 20 mm Hispano Mk II cannon with 120 rounds-per-gun (rpg) in the outer bays combined with 2 × .50 cal Browning M2 machine guns, with 250 rpg in the inner bays. With of the relocation of the Hispano to the outer gun bay the blisters covering the feed motors were moved outboard on the gun bay doors. or 4 × 20 mm Hispano cannon with 120 rpg (this configuration was rarely fitted.) The 20 mm Hispano cannon were moved outboard and a more effective .50 calibre Browning .50 cal M2/AN heavy machine gun with 250 rpg was added to the inner gun-bay replacing the outer Browning .303s. The first trial installation of the installation (modification 1029) was made in BS118, a Mark XI in November 1943. This armament later became standard for all Spitfire Mk XIVs used by 2 TAF as fighters.[6] The improved armament was more effective for both air-to-air engagements and air-to-ground attacks.
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