The Bristol Blenheim

[Denis]

Originally designed as a fast mail aircraft under a invite of competition by Lord Rothermere to produce Britains fastest commercial aeroplane. Produced by the Bristol Aircraft Company as Type 142 in 1935, the RAF were impressed and ordered a military version to serve as a light bomber.

Later in production it became the Blenheim, and saw roles as diverse as bomber, long range fighter, and nightfighter. As a fighter it was outclassed very early by modern monoplane fighters, as a bomber it saw heavy losses in the Battle of France and early skirmishes in occupied europe. But it did excel as a nightfighter with the early airborne radar known as AI.

Powered by two Bristol Mercury poppet valved radial engines, armanent consisted of four .303 Browning machine guns in a pod under the fuselage and a powered turret containing a .303 Vickers K gun. In many cases the turret was removed and the gunner dropped in favour of just the pilot and a radar operator for the nightfighter version.

 

[kev7d]

Another goodun.  I always think the nose end of the Blenheim never did quite fit with the the rest of the aircraft.   

[colinb]

Only see her once Denis - and just a little to far to get a decent shot.

[Denis]

2 hours ago, kev7d said:

Another goodun.  I always think the nose end of the Blenheim never did quite fit with the the rest of the aircraft.   

 This one didnt either!

It is the only short nose section for a Blenheim that is known to exist, a chap saved the nose of a MkIF as a body project for an electric powered car just after the war.  Unfortunately it suffered a small fire and stored the nose rather than dispose of it.  He kept all of the original cockpit items seperate and when the nose for this was sourced, all the fixtures and fittings came with it.

This short nose replaced the long bomber type nose that was written off after the post restoration crash at Duxford.

[JHFoto]

Lovely old aircraft

[FUJI]

Huge waves of nostalgia course through me whenever I see or hear any one of these wartime veterans....... I remember huge waves of planes, whether ours, or theirs droning or roaring across the skies for real.

One vivid memorory is of hundreds of large planes towing pairs of gliders, it must have been on or just after D-Day...

No apologies, if I repeat these observations....memories like that remain raw.

Keep them coming folks.....love planes.....hate flying.

FUJI