I’ve been a bit Beaufighter crazy lately and have read all I can find on it. I just finished a book called “Beaufighters, BOAC and Me” by Sam Wright, who was a navigator on Beaus with 254 Squadron.
He mentions that the last time he got into a Beaufighter was in Portugal on a trip in 1973. He learned in casual conversation while at Portella airport near Lisbon that there was a Beaufighter at the Portuguese Air Force base a few miles away.
He went there and in talking to an officer at the base learned it had been recovered from a beach where it had force landed some years before. Wright got a chance to get into the Beaufighter and based on his description it was in decent shape despite its time outside and must have been on it’s gear as he crawled in through the pilot’s entrance.
He describes drifting back in time with the memories and then getting his only injury in a Beaufighter when he banged his head on one of the top fuselage spars and drew blood.
I understand that Portugal operated 17 Beaus. I know the RAF Museum Beau is ex Portuguese but it was back in England long before 1973.
Anyone have any idea what Beau Wright would have seen and if it still exists?
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July 9, 2010 at 7:31 am