Well, it's a Beaufighter TT 10 I think. Many aircraft were converted to Target Towing post-war so the photo is late '40s or early '50s methinks. There were a couple at Changi (or was it Seletar?) In 1961 as I passed through to Butterworth.
The tow target looks familiar maybe an early Flight Refuelling job. PNK may know.
It looks like a 32ft glider target which makes it post war. They were brought into service late and were quickly overtaken by the need for much faster targets. The two protrusions on the nose were for the towing line. Used by both RAF and FAA but most photos I have seen in use have been FAA. The main reason for using gliders instead of flags or sleeves was that the realism didn't exist on the fabric targets as they only represented the fuselage and lacked the wings which in the real world provided a larger target area and wing hits could still bring a plane down. I suspect many of those shooting at sleeve targets would have said they would have been more hits if it had wings
Having had a quick look at my files I couldn't find a design of that size that matched. There was an 8ft span half scale model that looked similar so this may be a 32ft version of their original 16 ft, assuming it is 32ft of course. The airfield may have been Oakley as this was used during the late war period for testing these gliders. If Michael Draper is a member of the forum maybe he will know more?
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
You could be right. I didn't look too closely at it but now you have mentioned it does look a bit angular (chiney?) in the fuselage compared to most versions I have seen. I will check with my TNA collection to see if I can find a similar model.
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
Did she share her recollections of what was going on in the picture?
Although it appears there may be a chine, I think it's more to do with the cross section of the fuselage design.
mawganmad ~ her recollection was that the photograph had been taken in 1946 after the RAF had vacated the airfield.
Mary had been told that the gliders were experimental prototypes and that she had applied the fabric covering in their Oxfordshire factory which had been located behind the Black Horse public house in Thame.
Mary understood that were being developed for the Fleet Air Arm and that the metal production versions were to be manufactured at the Lines factory in Merthyr Tydfil. It may have been referred to as the Triang Factory.
Note: airfieldsman photographed Mary on the RAF Oakley 70th anniversary post.
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