Handley Page Hastings

All the talk about the Argosy and Soviet transports with bomb aimers flats made me think about the Hastings. I have always wondered why a transport would need the windows in the nose??? I assume to help with taxiing

this is the example at Duxford, I think I have some of the NAM example to post at some point

The Hastings was used for parachute dropping and therefore required an 'Aimers' window.
Paratroops and supplies were dropped from the fuselage but supplies, from CLE containers to Jeeps and guns could also be dropped from under the fuselage.
The Aimer would be looking for the DZ markings and directing the aircraft into a position in the sky to account for the affect of the wind on the parachutes.
The Beverley and the Argosy had these Aimers windows for the same reason.

thanks, obvious when you think about it!

Another - but vague - thought/question.

When the Hastings were used the the NBS (Navigation and Bombing School) at Lindholme (nicknamed 1066 squadron... of course), did they use optical bomb-sights at all, or was it all just all done with instruments/radar?

I believe the set-up at Bomber Command Bombing School at Lindholme was that the Varsity did the visual bomb-aiming training (it had a window in the pannier as standard) whereas the Hastings T.5 used only the H2S Mk 9 underslung radar.

As far as I can remember, the Hastings that were there (c1971 - just before the station closed all flying and was just a host to Northern Radar and 721MSU Mobile Bomb Scoring Unit - where I was) had no radomes fitted and there were no Varsties there at that time. The bombing training was generally done in a special building where there was at least one simulator set up for a make-believe country (had a shufti in there one day on a visit). The pride of that facility was the map of the simulated country - which was quite a work of art; and one of the creators of that map, (obviously with a sense of humour!) had included two places: one called, "Braz" and the other called "Pantz" (shows would a weird sort of memory of some things I have!).