HANG Newsletter - Royal Institute of Navigation

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Royal Institute of Navigation bombers, conventional bombers and mine-layers and were then used as training aircraft until being declared obsolete in 1945. So, it is possible that Pete’s Tail Drift Sight found service in a Beaufort. The measurement of drift has evolved. The further back we go the slower the aircraft so the greater the impact of wind. Wimperis, in his 1920 ‘Air Navigation’ says that the drift indicator choice lies between the aero bearing plate for vertical observation, the wind gauge bearing plate for tail observation and the course setting sight for forward observation. One day I may have the chance to comment on how the 1930s produced some magnificently complicated ways of tackling this problem. _____________________________________________________________ Navigator’s office Bristol Beaufort. Photo credit AWM. When digging around for information on the Tail Drift Sight I found a web site that had been compiled by an Australian aero-modeller Phil Mead. He had visited the Australian War Museum and the collection included a Bristol Beaufort A9-557. The Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) was a twin-engine torpedo bomber developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. Beauforts first saw service with Coastal Command and then the Fleet Air Arm from 1940 until they were withdrawn from operational service in the European theatre in 1942. Beauforts operated as torpedo bombers, conventional bombers and mine-layers and were then used as training aircraft until being declared obsolete in 1945. Beauforts also saw considerable action in the Mediterranean; Beaufort squadrons based in Egypt and on Malta helped put an end to Axis shipping supplying Rommel in North Africa. Beauforts were most widely used until the end of the Second World War by the Royal Australian Air Force in the Pacific theatre. All but six of the RAAF's Beauforts were manufactured under licence in Australia. Although designed as a torpedo-bomber, the Beaufort more often flew as a level-bomber. The Beaufort flew more hours in training than on operational missions and more were lost through accidents and mechanical failures than were lost to enemy fire. However, the Beaufort did spawn the Beaufighter which was a long-range fighter variant. Page 12 of 16
Royal Institute of Navigation Phil had taken about 20 photographs of the exterior and another 20 of the interior as aide to modelling. Several photo were of the navigation position as I show below. Beaufort: looking forward from cockpit, navigator’s table. Photo credit Phil Mead. Surely this must be one of the best views offered to a navigator. He is in the nose sitting sideways but with an unobstructed forward view. Did the navigator of, for example, a Canberra or Sea Vixen or Vulcan ever wish he could see a little more of the outside world? I found these photos when hoping to show that the Beaufort used the Tail Drift Sight. With a pang of disappointment I note that this Beaufort had the later Drift Recorder mounted beyond the navigator’s table where Pete might have hoped to find a Tail Drift Sight. _____________________________________________________________ Small silver compass Compass alongside £1 coin. Photo credit pkhl. This small silver compass came to my attention recently. It is small as can be seen from the £1 coin alongside. It came to me with the story that it was worn round the neck by an RAF pilot who served in WW2. It was thought that the pilot’s wife had it specially made. It is in fact a well hall-marked piece of silver. It is Victorian silver, marked London 1879, so the wife could not have had it made for her husband. I wrote Page 13 of 16
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HANG Newsletter - Royal Institute of Navigation

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