What aircraft is this?
 

Came across this on Pinterest. No caption or clue where it comes from. Looks like British markings.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e0e8dbd6e.jpeg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Monitor

'Winkle' Brown flew Monitor Mk.11 NP406 at Woodley in late 1945. My old friend Alan Goodfellow (Fleet Air Arm test pilot) was seconded to Miles Aircraft during the war and flew the Monitor quite a lot. Both Pilots' reports on this aircraft can be read in 'Miles Aircraft The Wartime Years' by Peter Amos.

A bit of a Heinz 57 job, Wiki 'Miles Monitor'.

Go om Tom
Give us a precis
Dave

Can't you sleep either ? ! If you insist...... 'Winkle' Brown "A surprisingly competent machine"

Damming with faint praise! Which confirms my instinctive reaction to the photo.

it's afternoon in Cambodia where i live. More than 30 degrees C as well

typical British understatement = not bad at all

A good hard frost here ! Pond frozen over.

Maybe. I read it as ‘Not quite as a bad as you’d expect it to be.’
According to it’s Wiki page it had unhappy time at Boscome Down during testing and never made it into service.

Alan Goodfellow tested NF904 (2nd Prototype) and NP407 (2nd Production) at Woodley. The impression I get from reading his report, which is published in full, is that the aeroplane was a bit of a Curate's Egg. Incidentally Alan (Peter) Goodfellow flew a great range of aeroplanes including nearly all the wartime Spitfire Mks. He told me that his favourite aeroplane to fly was the Mitchell and that his biggest regret was that he never got the chance to fly the Whirlwind.

That's interesting - I knew some guys who'd flown a lot of types and they reckoned the Mitchell was " a bit hot" for such a large aircraft - could be a handful they said

I thought it was the B-26 Martin Marauder that had a reputation as a "hot ship".

Back to the Monitor. Ignoring the cockpit section, it reminds me of some other twin, but I can't place it. Does anyone have any thoughts?

With a bit of dihedral on the tailplane, maybe a Havoc/Boston/A20?

Somebody I knew flew one for a few years and he enjoyed it. Jeff Hawke, I recall, said it was heavy but easy to fly and both he and the Dutch group that fly one performed fairly energetic displays when I saw them.

Slightly reminiscent of the Tigercat aft of the cockpit (and drop the wing/fair in the turret!)

India 4-2, are you thinking of the Botha. My uncle flew them and was not impressed.

Looks like the tailplane of a Horsa.

Thanks for the suggestions chaps, but VG has it - it was the Botha I was thinking of!

As I was typing this, I realized I didn't know the origin of the name. Now I know:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Botha

Always wondered, did any other air forces request "fresh sheet of paper" new designs to fill the role of drogue tower? The UK came up with the Monitor, Sturgeon (postwar, but was it originally designed for other duties?), and the Miles Martinet, may have been others. However, I think the vast majority of aircraft employed on drogue towing duty would have been obsolete aircraft which could do a reasonable job without too much serious modification. Cannot think of any other country that thought drogue towing aircraft should be specifically designed for this role from the start, but I could be wrong! And when did the first drogue towers appear in any air force? I'm guessing in the mid to late 1930s. Apart from fighter aircraft, much drogue towing was carried out for land-based A/A units, armed ships (including merchant vessels in wartime), and also large military aircraft with manual and powered gun positions, including flying boats.