Lockheed Hudson

The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, a military conversion of the Model 14 Super Electra airliner. The British Purchasing Commission ordered 200 for the Royal Air Force in 1938, flight trials began at Burbank, California on 10 December 1938 and deliveries started on 15 February 1939. The order was far larger than any Lockheed had received and made the Hudson the company's first significant aircraft construction contract. It served throughout the Second World War, mainly with RAF Coastal Command but also in transport and training roles and in delivering agents into occupied France, and it was used extensively by the Royal Canadian Air Force in anti-submarine squadrons and by the Royal Australian Air Force. On 8 October 1939 a Hudson became the first Allied aircraft operating from the British Isles to shoot down an enemy aircraft, and on 27 August 1941 a Hudson attacked the German submarine U-570, whose crew surrendered.