Development
At around this time the new Douglas Havoc then entering limited service as an "intruder" offered an alternative to the Blenheim, also having a considerable performance advantage, and it was decided to conduct experiments with these.
In September 1940, Sidney Cotton pursued the idea of an airborne searchlight for night-fighters, that he termed "Aerial Target Illumination" (ATI). He enlisted the help of William Helmore, and they jointly took out patents on the techniques (GB574970 and GB575093). Helmore, a serving RAF officer, then sponsored the development of what became known as Turbinlite.
The searchlight was developed and built by GEC, and was fitted into the nose of the Havoc behind a flat transparent screen with power for the light coming from heavy lead-acid batteries fitted in the Havoc's bomb bay. Battery power for the 135 kW (1,200 Amp) searchlight was sufficient for about two minutes of operation. The Havoc's own armament was removed from the nose.
The radar fitted was the AI Mk.IV, with broad "arrow head" aerials protruding from the both sides of the aircraft nose with additional side-mounted, and upper- and lower-wing mounted, dipoles. The modifications were carried out at Burtonwood Aircraft Repair Depot and the resulting aircraft was known as the Havoc I Turbinlite.
The unarmed Havoc Turbinlite was intended to find the enemy bomber using its RDF equipment and then use the Turbinlite to illuminate the target for the accompanying Hurricanes to find and shoot down.
Read more about this topic: Turbinlite
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