Unusual night fighters

There have been many aircraft used in the nightfighter role that were never intended to take on the task. To mention just a few:-
Me109, F4U, Spitfire, Huricane, Lightning, Blenhiem, and most unusual the Swordfish.
Dai

oops forgot the Avro 504
Dai

Well, I have seen a model of the Avro 504K, called "Zeppelin killer" . As for the Spitfires, I think they were rejected as night fighters because of bad visibility on landing (especially in the night time) and narrow landing gear. But still, black Spitfire would surely add some spice to the collection of WWII planes

I'm still thinking about Typhoon - it would look somewhat different with radar antenas in the wings and underwing fuel tanks. Toughest task is to find decent 1/72nd kit of car-door tiffie. I had one about 10 years ago - it was made by some russian manufacturer - thick plastic, low detail...

QUOTE: P.S. how did exactly night-fighter Spitfires look like - were they black (gloss/matt?)?

I made a nightfighter Hurricane and the Revell instructions specifies a Matt black finish.. Guess it should be the same for the spitfire.. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Nandakumar

The F.W.-189 was used as a radar-eguipped nightfighter. Also the F.W.-190 and some Me-109G's. The U.S. Navy used some PV-1's with 3 .50's under the nose as nightfighters too.

check airliners.net for some hurricane shots.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=Hawker%20Hurricane&distinct_entry=true

Hey Moonwoka if you want a gloss black spitfire the Isreali a/f had one. there were photos of it in Flypast magazine a few years ago, if i can find any photos of it online i will post the site address here...Greg

The first that comes to mind for me as aircraft that went night fighter without being initially intended for it is the Boulton Paul Defiant.

A total flop as the day fighter it was intended to be, it found a few more years of combat service in the nightfighter role.

Don't forget the P-70!

what about the p38 not an intended night fighter or the mosquito
the me 110 ,junkers 88, dornier 17, me 262 well about anything that flew in germany in ww2 was converted to night fighter duty or bomber duty

Don't forget that the Flying Tigers flew a few night missions in their old export model Tomahawks.

While not "fighters" the Soviet PO-2 recon planes were used as night "harassment". The were piloted by russian women and would cut the engines and drop bombs or hand grenades down on the Germans. They were labeled nachtexen by the Germans or Nightwitches.
Later the North Koreans used the same plane to do the same harassment over US and UN troops. They were nicknamed Bedtime Charlies.
Fantasy of Flight over in Kissimmee Florida has one of these. Very cool aircraft.

Mike

I know it wasn't strictly a conversion, but nobody has mentioned the He-219. It was a splendid night fighter.

demono69

The F-94 was a conversion of the F-80/T-33 airframe and was used as a night fighter in Korea. It was also used to escort night bombing aircraft over North Korea.

Another rare german conversion was the FW/ TA 154 "german Mosquito" -Nightfighter Prototype - (think the V3 is currently available from Hasegawa in 1/72) Beautyfull aircraft.

Another probaply interesting subject:
The FW 187 Falke (lost the race for the standard " Luftwaffe" Destroyer" for "unkown" reasons against the BF110 during OKL trials) the three remaining prototypeplanes was deliverd to a "Werksschutzstaffel " ( kind of - local factory defense squadron ) - later to a Bf 110 Squadron in Norway - and where abandoned from Dayfighters to the Nightfighters when the OKL found out that the pilots of the "Werksschutzstaffel" and even the Luftwaffe prefered the FW 187 in combat instead of the Bf 110. They had several victorys over the british and .....again where prefered by the "Nachtjagd"pilots....

regards

michael

Micheal, those are two of my favorite planes. I always thought the FW-187 Falke was one of the nicest looking twin engine fighters of all time.

;-) your´not the only one

here are two pics

FW 187

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/fw187-7.jpg
TA-154

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/ta154-2.jpg

BTW there was a FW 187 1/72 Kit available from austrian company KARO AS. But is out of production since ages. One of Ebay Topsellers in germany but really rare. May be you like to help us convincing Revell germany to bring out a new 187 Kit . They have currently a Modell Wishlist program underway . here is the Link . Vote for a FW 187 :-) THX Michael
http://www.revell.de/en/modelkits/wunschmodell.php

Else where in the forum there is a topic called "Worst Modeling Mistake" The plane that was used as the throwing star was my Karo As FW-187. I still have the wreckage in my spare parts box as a reminder to keep my cool. I can laugh about it now.

How about the F7F-3N Tigercat? Don't know much about this version, other than the USMC used it with some success in Korea. By the way did they have a different paint scheme other than the dark blue?

Heres one I forgot about, the F-82G. It started life as a long-range bomber escort and wound up as a night fighter. Then there was the Douglas F-10 Skynight, I don't know much about it except that the Marines used it in Korea as a night fighter. I don't think this one was ever kitted though.