--- Between 1937 and September 1939, the Bristol Aeroplane Company delivered more than 1,000 aircraft and thousands of engines. Indeed, half of the RAF's front line aircraft in September 1939 were Bristol Type 142M Blenheims and Bristol engines equipped about 80 per cent of all RAF front-line aircraft. The often-overlooked Bristol Type 152 Beaufort first flew in October 1938 and went on to perform very valuable service with Coastal Command, against enemy shipping around UK coasts and in the Mediterranean.

During 1937 and 1938, there had been a lot of "faffing about" in the industry, which had failed to produce any modern aircraft armed with cannon and capable of long-range escort and night-fighter duties. In November 1938, the Bristol design team came up with a brilliant stop-gap originally known as the Beaufort-Fighter. This used the wings, rear fuselage, tail and undercarriage of the Beaufort and, when joined with a smaller two-seat front fuselage, a ferocious armament of four cannons and six machine guns plus two very powerful Bristol Hercules engines, the Bristol Type 156 "Beaufighter" was born...