Bristol 162H Beaumort Mk.1

The most elegant of the Beaufighter family of aircraft was most certainly the Type 162H Beaumort. Not to be confused with the Bristol Bowmore</i> flying-boat, the Beaufort bomber and the Beaumont bomber project (which he reused the basic Type 162 number from), the Beaumort</i> was the only high-wing variant of the family, a stretched Beaufighter with enlarged tail and a gun turret on top.

Another unique feature of the Beaumort was the use of two 2000hp Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 engines with the same 4-bladed propellers that were used on the Spitfire PR.19 fighter.

The Beaumort performed remarkably well but the Griffon engines were badly needed on the fighters, and without them, the type was only marginally better than the existing Beaufort so it was decided not to proceed with it.