The Miles M.33 Monitor was a British designed twin-engine monoplane. The fuselage was narrow with bulbous canopy and rounded tail fin. A clear dome housed a camera on top of the fuselage aft of the wings. High-set wings were unswept with square tips, and a nacelle, containing a 14-cylinder radial engine with three-blade propeller and main landing gear, was  mounted under either wing near the fuselage.

As the Royal Navy reqested an aircraft capable of simulating dive-bombing attacks, a new modification T.T.Mk.II was developed.

In total 22 Monitors were ordered by the Royal Navy, including the two Miles M.33 Monitor prototypes and 20 Miles M.33 Monitor TT.II. The two Miles M.33 Monitor prototypes were ordered under Contract No Acft/2668/C.2(a) to Spec Q.9/42 and numbered NF900 and NF904. Designed in 1942 under Q.9/42 specifications for a special high-speed target towing aircraft, the first prototype, T.T.Mk.I serial NF900, first flew at Woodley on 5 April, 1944.

The 20 ordered Miles M.33 Monitor TT.II were built by Miles Aircraft, Woodley, under Contract No. Acft/2831 dated 1 March 1943 and numbered NP406 to NP 425, and any further production for RAF and RN was cancelled.

Only 8 aircraft were actually tested by Royal Navy test pilots at A&AEE Boscombe Down and none saw service with the Fleet Air Arm. Reports of being in service at Dale are incorrect. The first production aircraft were delivered to D Squadron of A&AEE, Boscombe Down in May 1945, and Monitor NP 406 was displayed at the review of new Royal Navy aircraft at Heston in October 1945. The Miles Monitors from NP413 onwards were probably completed from 1946.

Following the testing of the 8 Monitors by the Royal Navy they were replaced by the D-II. Mosquito TT.Mk39. At the end of the war contracts for 600 Monitors were cancelled, and production ended after the 20 contracted Miles Monitors had been completed. For Miles this was a financial disaster.

           Fleet Air Arm history
            Miles Monitor
            Total FAA 1939-1945:        8 by 1945 (22 by 1946)
            First delivered to RN:         1945. Naval unit in the A&AEE Boscombe Down
            First squadron 1939-1945:   None
            Operational squadron:         None
            Last served with RN           Aircraft still being completed in 1946

Created 3-4-1999, Modified 3-4-2000

 

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