he Bristol Brigand was a British anti-shipping/ground attack/dive bomber aircraft, developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a replacement for the Beaufighter. A total of 147 were built and were used by the Royal Air Force in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency and Kenya until replaced by the de Havilland Hornet in Malaya and the English Electric Canberra jet bomber elsewhere.
Design and development
The Bristol Type 164 was the outcome of the 1942 Air Ministry specification H.7/42 calling for a faster development of the Beaufighter for long-range torpedo work and anti-shipping strikes.[1] The Bristol design team led by Leslie Frise used the wings, tail and undercarriage of the Buckingham with a new fuselage of oval cross-section. The pilot, navigator/bomb aimer and radio-operator/gunner were grouped in the forward cockpit. In spite of the official change in its role to a bomber, the first eleven Brigands off the production line were completed as torpedo bombers.[2] These early aircraft served with RAF Coastal Command from 1946 to 1947 before being converted to bombers.