I don’t know the figures for arrester wire technology c.1940, but the Defiant weighed a lot less than a Roc or a Fulmar, even with a turret. Without a turret but with 8 forward firing guns, and folding wings and hook, it might not have weighed much less, with a navigator in situ, and it did have only a 250 sq.ft wing. The weight of a Defiant TT.III target tug might be a good guide, at 8,227 lbs (With winches instead of guns/ammunition) The Fulmar had a 342 sq. ft. wing but a loaded weight of 9,800 lbs.

Chucking out the navigator, as the Navy soon realised it had to, and making the ‘Sea Defiant’ an 8-gun single seater, would have resulted in an aircraft almost certainly weighing less than the 8,100 lbs of a Sea Hurricane.

As I said, Eric Brown assessed the Defiant for carrier operation and saw no problems.

The sad thing is, that the Defiant’s reputation was soiled by the sole daylight action of No.141 Squadron. They had been advised of No.264’s proven tactics against attack by Bf.109s but chose to ignore the advice. Nine Defiants flew straight and level when attacked by 30 Bf.109s, which attacked from underneath, as they recognised their adversaries, and 141were decimated.

I have spoken with several 264 aircrew, and none of them wanted to be taken off daylight operations after that. They all had faith in their aircraft, and in their tactics; and they also spoke of bad blood between the two squadrons as a result.

There was one role which the Defiant could have undertaken quite readily, as a carrier fighter, and I have often wondered why no-one thought of it. Boulton Paul did produce a design, the P.85, to the same requirement as the Roc, but it was very different to the Defiant. When they modified the Defiant prototype as a potential single seat fighter with forward firing guns, someone ought to have suggested sticking a hook on it. Eric Brown assessed the Defiant for carrier operation later in the War and passed it. The pilot had excellent forward vision, it would have been easy to fit folding wings, unlike the Hurricane and Spitfire, and it had a wide track undercarriage unlike the Spitfire. If the Navy wanted to haul around a navigator, the Defiant would have been a better option than the Fulmar Even the standard turret-equipped Defiant with a hook could have been the fastest fighter in Fleet Air Arm in service in 1940.

The irony is Boulton Paul had two production lines side by side, the Defiant and the useless Roc; it could so easily have been the Defiant and the Sea Defiant.

I believe it’s back in the hangars on the far side of the airfield. It’s a great shame as it’s the one aircraft in the collection with local connections having been made just down the road in Wolverhampton, and the prototype undertook landing trials on Cosford’s runway. I managed to get it out of those hangers for the Boulton Paul Association’s Exhibition 19 years ago, now the new influx of retired aircraft (and the Comper Swift) means there’s no room for it.

I too saw the Catalina on the 3rd passing just North of Blithfield Reservoir in Staffordshire, heading East. For one glorious moment I thought it might be about to land there !