I guess most people know that I quite like the more unusual or lesser modelled aircraft, the new project is no different.
I guess first up is a very brief background on the aircraft....
The aircraft type first started off as the Douglas A-20 Havoc designed in 1937 by Donald Douglas, Jack Northrop and Ed Heinemann as an attack/light bomber and night fighter. It went through many differnet guises and was operated by not only the US but amoung others, France, Russia and the UK. By the end of its production in 1944 nearly 7500 had been built! (and only a handful remain today....none in flying condition I believe.)
The Boston IIIA was an adaptation from the French specified Boston DB-7A and was ordered by the RAF as a longer range light bomber/attack aircraft. It was given twice the fuel capacity, a pair of Wright R-2600-23 engines and gun blisters to the side of the nose. I understand that the IIIA had 7 guns...Four Browning .303's in the nose, two mounted at the rear gunners position and apparently a Vickers .303 in the ventral position, though I have not found any drawings or photos to support that. Beyond these the aircraft can be differentiated against other Havocs/Bostons by its individual exhaust stubs and an extended carburettor intake which came to the front of the engine cowling.
Operationally the Bostons took part in the attacks on the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen (Operation Cerberus) and also the infamous raid on Dieppe (Operation Jubilee) in August 1942. A total of 570 aircraft saw service in the UK and it is described as a beautiful aircraft to fly, almost fighter-like in its handling. Seemingly the Boston became the favourite aircraft of those who flew it.
