These walk-around photos were taken at the RAF Museum London in Hendon in 2019. They show a Bristol Beaufighter TF.X, serial RD253, displayed in RAF Coastal Command colours with the distinctive black and white invasion stripes added in 1994. The Beaufighter was one of the most formidable multi-role aircraft of the Second World War — originally conceived as a heavy night fighter with airborne interception radar, it later evolved into a devastating Coastal Command strike aircraft armed with four 20mm cannon, rockets and torpedoes. Its sleeve-valve Bristol Hercules engines gave it an unusually quiet approach, earning it the nickname "Whispering Death" among ground forces in the Pacific. Built in October 1944 at the Old Mixon factory in Weston-super-Mare, RD253 was delivered to the Portuguese Naval Air Arm in March 1945 as BF-13, one of sixteen Beaufighters ferried to Portugal for maritime patrol duties. It was retired in 1949 and subsequently used as an instructional airframe at the Lisbon Technical Institute, where it remained until 1965 when it was presented to the RAF Museum. Restoration was completed in 1968 using components sourced from several other Beaufighters, and RD253 has been on public display at Hendon since the museum opened in 1972.