Talk:Miles M.20

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[edit] Armament

David Mondey's "British aircraft of World War II" claims an armament of 12 Browning mgs, and implys that the engine assemblies were that of the Halifax and Lancaster bombers.Can anyone shed any light on this.Cetot 10:57, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Jane's was written during the time the M.20 was actually being tested and built. I'm more inclined to trust it as a source for weapons. The other two sources agree on the 8-gun armament as well. Besides - 12 guns would be extraordinarily heavy and take up a ton of space. As for the Merlin engine assembly, the Handley-Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster used the same Merlin XX engines. -ericg ✈ 17:37, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

I guess the operative words that I missed were "intended to be".As only two prototypes were built who knows what it would have been armed and engined with.I guess as a last ditch fighter, engines and guns would have been diverted from whatever was available.Cetot 19:32, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

RE: the 12 Guns - the M. 20 was designed for eight Browning .303 guns but with the provision for a further four if required - the twelve-gun armament was an official requirement for a short time when there was some doubt over whether cannons were reliable enough to be a suitable alternative, that's why some versions of the Hurricane (the IIB) and Typhoon (the IA) were also 12-gun armed.

RE: the M. 20 engine assemblies - the Merlin "power egg" was a complete engine/radiator installation developed by Rolls-Royce for the Merlin-powered version of the Beaufighter (the Mark II) which was also later used on the M. 20 and Lancaster. The power egg included all the ancilliaries (oil tank, etc) needed for the engine and could be 'just bolted on' to the front of any suitable aircraft design - hence the M. 20 and the Lancaster. Some (inaccurate) sources say the PEs were developed for the Lancaster but this is incorrect - the Lancaster benefited from the engine installations having already been developed for the Beaufighter, Chadwick designing a wing for the Lancaster utilising four of them. RE: the Halifax - this used a completely different engine installation for the Merlin, as the Halifax was designed to use Merlins before the PE's were developed and this is why a Merlin-Halifax has different engine nacelles from a Lancaster. Ian Dunster 14:14, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

There's a picture of a Merlin-powered Beaufighter II showing the Merlin nacelles here: [1] Ian Dunster 13:53, 26 March 2007 (UTC)