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P.85
The P.85 was Boulton Paul's tender to Specification O.30/35 for the naval turret fighter. A version of the Defiant for
Fleet Air Arm (FAA); it had a deeper fuselage and leading edge slats for lower landing speeds required of carrier aircraft. The engine would be either a Bristol Hercules radial or the Merlin. Despite a higher estimated top speed, the Blackburn Roc was selected. With Blackburn already busy producing other projects, the detail design and production of the Roc was given to Boulton Paul.
[8] The only FAA use of the Defiant was as the target tug version.
P.94
The first Defiant prototype had not been initially fitted with a turret and therefore had an impressive top speed. In 1940, Boulton Paul removed the turret from the prototype as a demonstrator for a fixed-gun fighter based on Defiant components. The armament offered was either 12 .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns (six per wing) or four 20 mm Hispano replacing eight of the Brownings. The guns could be depressed for ground attack. By that time, the RAF had sufficient quantities of Hawker Hurricanes and
Supermarine Spitfire and did not require a new single-seat fighter. With a calculated top speed of about 360 mph (579 km/h) at 21,700 ft, the P.94 was almost as fast as a contemporary Spitfire although less manoeuvrable.