BOULTON PAUL P.94 When repelling German raids on Britain, the Fighter Defiant with a dorsal turret did not justify the hopes placed on it, which made the company's designers think about creating a single-seat fighter with enhanced offensive weapons.

For these purposes, it was decided to re-equip the prototype P.82 Defiant (K8310). The second cockpit, a machine-gun turret was removed from the plane and twelve machine guns were installed in the wing (an option with the aircraft's armament with four 20-mm cannons and four machine guns was also considered).

The first Rolls-Royce Merlin III prototype aircraft, designated P.94, was ready in 1940. Identical propulsion systems with equal airframe dimensions make it easy to compare aircraft flight characteristics, see the table below. The removal of the rear firing point reduced the weight of the aircraft and improved its aerodynamics, while the speed increased by 120 km / h. Unfortunately, Boulton Paul was unable to complete the entire set of tests due to the lack of test pilots serving at that time in combat units to repel German raids, which made the further development of the project impossible.

Bibliography

• "Encyclopedia of military engineering" /Aerospace Publising/
• "The Turret Fighters. Defiant and Roc" /Alek Brew/

March 17, 2019.
It can be noted that on the Soviet Il-2, the absence of a gunner's place to protect the rear hemisphere was considered a disadvantage and had to be hastily installed during the war. And mind you, even on the Il-102, an airplane of the 80s of the last century, the Ilyushinites planted an arrow in the back, a tradition ...