Bristol Brigand

The Bristol Brigand was a British anti-shipping, ground attack and dive bomber aircraft developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a replacement for the Beaufighter. The Type 164 came from the 1942 Air Ministry specification H.7/42 for a faster Beaufighter development for long-range torpedo work. A team led by Leslie Frise combined the wings, tail and undercarriage of the Buckingham with a new oval-section fuselage that grouped the pilot, navigator and radio operator forward. The first eleven were completed as torpedo bombers for RAF Coastal Command and later converted to bombers. In all 147 were built. The RAF flew them in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency and in Kenya, until the de Havilland Hornet and the English Electric Canberra replaced them; the Brigands were later grounded and withdrawn.