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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hipWoINtJX0 > .
A
night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time post-World War II) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility.
Bristol Blenheim
In the German night-bombing raid on London on
18 June 1940, Blenheims accounted for five German bombers, thus proving that they were
better-suited for night fighting. In
July, No. 600 Squadron, by then based at
RAF Manston, had some of its
Mk IFs equipped with AI Mk III radar. With this radar equipment, a
Blenheim from the Fighter Interception Unit (FIU) at RAF Ford achieved the
first success on the night of
2–3 July 1940, accounting for a
Dornier Do 17 bomber.
More successes came, and before long the Blenheim proved itself
invaluable as a night fighter. Gradually, with the introduction of the
Bristol Beaufighter in 1940–1941, the
Blenheim was supplanted by its faster, better-armed descendant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Blenheim
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=293
Night Fighter Aircraft
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/nightfighter-aircraft.asp
Night fighters began to be used in World War I and included types that were specifically modified to operate at night.
During World War II, night fighters were either purpose-built or day fighters modified to be effective night fighting combat aircraft, often employing radar or other systems for providing some sort of detection capability in low visibility. Many WW II night fighters also included instrument landing systems for landing at night as turning on the runway lights made runways into an easy target for opposing intruders.
Avionics systems were greatly miniaturized over time allowing the addition of radar altimeter, terrain-following radar, improved instrument landing system (ILS), microwave landing system (MLS), Doppler weather radar, LORAN receivers, GEE, tactical air navigation system (TACAN), inertial navigation system (INS), GPS, and GNSS in aircraft. 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 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.
The Nazis invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and by this time, the RAF were well advanced with plans to build a radar – then called 'RDF' in Britain – equipped night-fighter fleet. The
Airborne Interception Mk. II radar (AI Mk. II) was being fit experimentally to a small number of
Bristol Blenheim aircraft, having been selected for this role as its fuselage was sufficiently roomy to accommodate the additional crew member and radar apparatus; the first prototype system went into service in November 1939, long before the opening of major British operations. These early systems had significant practical problems, and while work was underway to correct these flaw, by the time
the Blitz opened in
August 1940, the night fighter fleet was still in its infancy.
Through this period, the RAF experimented with many other aircraft and interception methods in an effort to get a working night fighter force. One attempt to make up for the small number of working radars was to fit an AI to a
Douglas Havoc bomber which also carried a searchlight in its nose. These
Turbinlite aircraft were intended to find the targets and illuminate them with the searchlight, allowing
Hurricanes adapted for night flying to shoot them down visually. This proved almost impossible to arrange in practice, and the Cat Eye fighters had little luck during the
closing months of 1940. The Turbinlite squadrons were disbanded in
early 1943.
By
early 1941, the first examples of a production-quality radar,
AI Mk. IV, were beginning to arrive. This coincided with the arrival of the
Beaufighter, which offered significantly higher performance than the pre-war Blenheims; it was the
highest performance aircraft capable of carrying the bulky early airborne interception radars used for night fighter operations, and quickly became invaluable as a night fighter. Over the next few months, more and more Beaufighters arrived and the success of the night fighters roughly doubled every month until
May '41, when the
Luftwaffe ended their bombing efforts. Although
night bombing never ended, its intensity was greatly decreased, giving the RAF time to introduce the
AI Mk. VIII radar working in the microwave band, and the de Havilland Mosquito to mount it. This combination remained the premier night fighter until the end of the war.
As the German effort wound down, the RAF's own bombing campaign was growing. The
Mosquitos had little to do over the UK, so a number of squadrons were formed within
No. 100 Group RAF and fit with special systems, such as
Perfectos and
Serrate, for homing-in on German night fighters. The British also experimented with mounting
pilot-operated AI Mark 6 radar sets in
single-seat fighters, and the
Hurricane II C(NF), a dozen of which were produced in
1942, became the first radar-equipped, single-seat night fighter in the world. It served with
245 and
247 Squadrons briefly and
unsuccessfully before being sent to
India to
176 Squadron, with which it served until the end of 1943. A similarly radar-equipped
Hawker Typhoon was also developed, but no production followed.
