Originally Posted by
POBJOY
It could have played a part against unescorted machines but the game had dramatically changed by 1940 and its use suspect for daylight ops.
Thank you, Pobjoy, that is what I'd thought, and it means that the Defiant wasn't so much a bad design for the situation it was specified for; just that, somewhat to the surprise of most people, it didn't turn out like that when war happened.
On the topic of escort fighters, some sources (on the internet, so ...) say the Me/Bf 110 was designed in part as an escort fighter, other sources not. Either way, it didn't work out in that role.
I have read that the continued production of the Defiant after its inadequacies were known was to keep factories in production; this is often said of various obsolescent types, and I wonder if it was really so? There were ways in which Defiants could be used, as target tugs and gunnery trainers, so I suppose it wasn't all waste, but I would have thought that keeping obsolete aircraft in production was merely postponing the necessary halt in output for retooling, which might have been better taken earlier; but it would be a mistake to think the planners hadn't thought of that. I'd be really glad of information about this, or a pointer to a book on aircraft production in WW II that would cover such matters.