Turbinlite

The Helmore/GEC Turbinlite was a 2,700 million candela (2.7 Gcd) searchlight fitted in the nose of a number of British Douglas Havoc night fighters during the early part of the Second World War and around the time of The Blitz.

In practice the Turbinlite was not a success, and the introduction of higher performance night fighters with their own radar meant they were withdrawn from service in early 1943.

The then-state-of-the-art metre-wavelength aircraft interception (AI) radar was bulky and, due to the operator workload, generally unsuited to carriage by single-engined fighters — and so required a twin-engine design.

However, the early radar-equipped Bristol Blenheims lacked the necessary speed advantage over the German Heinkel He 111s and Dornier Do 17 bombers then raiding the UK to be truly effective.

[1][2] At around this time the Bostons converted to night duties (and known as Havoc) then entering limited service as nightfighters and intruders offered an alternative to the Blenheim, also having a considerable performance advantage, and it was decided to conduct experiments with these.

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.