![]() ![]() This action won the pilot a Victoria Cross and cash prizes totaling £3,500 put up by a number of individuals. Operational B.E.2c with RAF 1a engine, "V" undercarriage, streamlined cowling on sump, and cut-out in upper centre section to improve field of fire for gunnerĪfter over a year of night Zeppelin raids, on the night of 2–3 September 1916, a BE2c flown by Captain William Leefe Robinson downed the SL 11, the first German airship to be shot down over Britain. This technique proved to be very effective. After lack of success while using darts and small incendiary bombs to attack Zeppelins from above, ultimately a Lewis gun loaded with novel incendiary ammunition, was mounted at an angle of 45° to fire upwards, to attack the enemy from below. As early as 1915, a number of B.E.2c aircraft (the infamous "Fokker Fodder") were modified into the first night fighters. Although defences had been set up, all of them proved woefully inadequate. Things changed on 22 September and 8 October 1914, when the Royal Naval Air Service bombed the production line and hangars of the Zeppelin facilities in Cologne and Düsseldorf. The general assumption of a quick war meant no need existed for strategic attacks. The only targets that could be attacked with any possibility of being hit in limited visibility would be cities, an unthinkable target at the time. The use of the term night fighter gradually faded away as a result of these improvements making the vast majority of fighters capable of night operation.Īt the start of the First World War, most combatants had little capability of flying at night, and little need to do so. The addition of greatly improved landing and navigation equipment combined with radar led to the use of the term all-weather fighter or all-weather fighter attack, depending on the aircraft capabilities. ![]() The war would see the first aircraft ever that was explicitly designed from the outset to function as a night fighter, the Northrop P-61 Black Widow.Īvionics systems were greatly miniaturised over time, allowing the addition of radar altimeter, terrain-following radar, improved instrument landing system, microwave landing system, Doppler weather radar, LORAN receivers, GEE, TACAN, inertial navigation system, GPS, and GNSS in aircraft. Some experiments tested the use of day fighters on night missions, but these tended to work only under very favourable circumstances and were not widely successful. Many night fighters of the conflict also included instrument landing systems for landing at night, as turning on the runway lights made runways into an easy target for opposing intruders. The term would be supplanted by “all-weather fighter/interceptor” post-WWII, with advancements in various technologies permitting the use of such aircraft in virtually all conditions.ĭuring the Second World War, night fighters were either purpose-built night fighter designs, or more commonly, heavy fighters or light bombers adapted for the mission, often employing radar or other systems for providing some sort of detection capability in low visibility. The concept of the night fighter was developed and experimented with during the First World War but would not see widespread use until WWII. Such designs were in direct contrast to day fighters fighters and interceptors designed primarily for use during the day or during good weather. Bottom right: A de Havilland Mosquito night fighter, with centimetric radar in nose radomeĪ night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor post- Second World War) is a fighter or interceptor aircraft adapted or designed for effective use at night, during periods of adverse meteorological conditions, or in otherwise poor visibility.Bottom left: American Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter with a radome nose for its radar.Top right: The nose of a German Lichtenstein radar-equipped Messerschmitt Bf 110 G-4 night fighter.Top left: Swedish de Havilland Venom NF.51 (J 33), during night operation 1954.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |