1:72 Corgi Aviation Archive Bristol Beaufighter TF.10

With the Royal Air Force not initially seeing the need for a heavily armed fighter with much longer range then that possessed by the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Fighter Command, the Bristol Beaufighter was originally progressed as a private venture, a heavy fighter variant of the Beaufort torpedo bomber already in production of the RAF. Indeed, the prototype Beaufighter started life as a partially built Beaufort fuselage taken from the production line, with the intention being that the new aircraft would utilise many of the components produced for this existing design. As it was, it soon became clear that the fuselage would have to be completely redesigned for the new fighter, which would lead to delays, but also a change in British military thinking. With war in Europe now looking increasingly certain, the Air Ministry placed and order for the new Beaufighter even before the prototype aircraft had flown, a decision which was fully vindicated in the years that followed. The Mark 10 variant (Roman numerals were replaced after 1948) of the Beaufighter is certainly one of the most familiar with enthusiasts and was the final major production variant of this magnificent aeroplane. Armed with a combination of rockets, cannon and in some cases a torpedo, Beaufighters of Coastal Command took a heavy toll of Axis shipping from the summer of 1943, operating in large formations and developing aggressive tactics which proved so effective, that the enemy shipping movements were restricted to night sailings only, as they hoped to avoid the attentions of the RAF’s Beaufighters.