MORE DEFIANTS NEEDED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 257, 27 September 1940, Page 7

MORE DEFIANTS NEEDED.

APPEAL BY MINISTER. (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 11.50 a.m.) RUGBf, Sept. 27. The Minister of Aircraft Production (Lord Beiaverhrook) has telegraphed the Government director of aircraft factories as follows : “I ask you to give us more Defiants. I impose on you the duty of increasing this output and speeding the delivery of these fighters. U6e every resource and employ all your energy to secure maximum production. “The splendid work done by the Defiant squadron in battle makes the manufacture of this aircraft a task of paramount importance in the defence of the country. 1 rely on you now to pass this urgent message to the subcontractors. On them depends the success of the Defiant programme.”

The Boulton Paul Defiants, two-seater fighter monoplanes, Wore introduced some months ago and have since greatly proved their value in the air defence of Britain. They carry several machine-guns in front of the wing, and a power-controlled four-machine-gun turret operated by a gunner behind the pilot’s cockpit. In one of their earliest encounters with the enemy a squadron of 12 of these machines shot down more than 40 .Nazi planes without loss. The designer of these-aircraft is Mr J. D. North, who has been chief designer to Messrs Boulton Paul Aircraft. Ltd., since 1917.