Restored Bristol Blenheim

Restored Bristol Blenheim sees the light

 Global Aviation Resource reports that May 30th the  Imperial War Museum Duxford the Aircraft Restoration Company’s Bristol Blenheim appeared in public as a complete aircraft for the first time since its long-term rebuild began in the summer of 2003.

WW 2 Blenheim

ARCo recovered their first Blenheim from Canada in the 1970s (RCAF serial 10038). The airframe was originally license-built by Fairchild Canada as a Bolingbroke Mk.IVT; essentially a Blenheim Mk.IV with some modifications and North American hardware/instrumentation. ARCo worked on the aircraft for twelve years, restoring her as a Blenheim Mk.IV (registered as G-MKIV). She made her first flight in May 1987, but was involved in a touch-and-go landing accident at Denholm Airfield just a month after and written off, miraculously without loss of life. Undeterred, her restoration crew determined to get another Blenheim back in the air. They obtained a further Canadian-built Bolingbroke IV (RCAF 10201), and managed to get her flying again in just five years as G-BPIV; their previous experience helping greatly to speed up the rebuild progress. She flew again in June 1993; the world’s only flying Blenheim was a huge hit on the air show circuit!

When she was airworthy

Unfortunately, the Blenheim crash-landed again in August 2003; this time at Duxford. While the aircraft suffered considerable damage, she wasn’t broken beyond repair. The Blenheim’s crew didn’t give up on her and formed a trust to ensure her continued operation in the UK.  They contracted ARCo to provide two full-time engineers to support the restoration project undertaken by Blenheim Duxford Ltd. (and supported by The Blenheim Society).

The Blenheim has undergone a thorough rebuild inside Duxford’s Hangar 3, and more recently in ARCo’s workshop. Interestingly, the team has decided to rebuild the aircraft to Mk.I standard. The bulk of the aircraft is nearly identical to a Mk.IV, except for the forward fuselage which is radically different. The Mk.I is essentially extinct (as are British-built Blenheim IVs, with no complete examples known to exist), but a few forward fuselages survive. One of these ended up at Duxford a few decades ago.

Ralph Nelson, a Bristol employee, had converted it into a peculiar automobile during 1946, using the chassis and power train from an Austin 7

The Mk.I fuselage comes from Blenheim L6739, a Battle of Britain night-fighter veteran. The Blenheim Society obtained the “car” intending to rebuild it into a fully operational nose section for a potential swap with the Mk.IV nose. The team had already begun this process before the 2003 accident, so it seemed logical to blend what they had already completed into G-BPIV’s restoration once that began. They rolled out the freshly restored “Blenheim Mk.I” in night fighter camouflage just a few days ago, and will eventually mark her as L6739. ARCo ran one of the aircraft’s Bristol Mercury engines on May 23rd, and expect to run the other very soon. If all goes well, she will be flying again very soon and delighting air show audiences again across the UK

Blenheim Survivors

BL-200 (bearing the Hakaristi) at the Aviation Museum of Central Finland.

There are currently no Blenheim or Bolingbroke aircraft that are airworthy. One airworthy Blenheim had been rebuilt from a scrapped Bolingbroke over a 12-year period, only to crash at an airshow at Denham within a month of completion in 1987.

Denham Bolingbroke Crash

A replacement Bolingbroke Mk IVT was rebuilt to flying status in just five years and painted to represent a Blenheim Mk IV in RAF wartime service. It began appearing at air shows and exhibitions in the UK, flying since May 1993 and was used in the 1995 film version of Shakespeare's Richard III. This aircraft crashed on landing at Duxford on 19 August 2003; the crash was feared to have made it a write-off,  but it is presently undergoing an extensive repair and conversion to the Mark I "Short nose" version by The Aircraft Restoration Company (ARC or ARCo) at Duxford, most of the work being done by volunteers.

The Duxford Crash

Funds are raised through donations and also by The Blenheim Society who run a Grand Flying Draw among many other activities. The aircraft is currently in the Aircraft Restoration Company hangar at Duxford and is the property of Blenheim (Duxford) Ltd.

In Canada, a number of other Bolingbrokes survived the war but were summarily consigned to the scrap heap. Postwar, enterprising farmers often bought surplus aircraft such as these for the scrap metal content, tyres for farm implements, and even for the fuel remaining in the tanks. Some surviving examples in Canada of the Bolingbroke can be traced back to this period. The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario is rebuilding a Bolingbroke to airworthy status. The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, Manitoba has restored the exterior of one Bolingbroke, painting it in the Air Training Plan yellow color. This particular aircraft is on display at a location on the Trans-Canada Highway in Brandon. A restored Bolingbroke is on static display at the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Victoria, British Columbia. The Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley Airport, Langley, British Columbia has on display the restored nose and cockpit section of a Bolingbroke, and holds the rest of an entire airframe in storage pending future restoration and display.

In Finland, the sole surviving original Blenheim in the world, a Mk IV registered as BL-200 of the Finnish Air Force, has been completely restored and is now on display at the Aviation Museum of Central Finland at Tikkakoski.

Finnish survivor- the only intact and complete original Blenheim

In the summer of 1996, a Bristol Blenheim Mk IVF was recovered from the sea, a few km off Rethymnon, Crete. The aircraft belonged to No. 203 Squadron RAF and was downed by friendly fire on 28 April 1941. The Blenheim was restored and moved to the Hellenic Air Force Museum. In Arizona, the Pima Air Museum has a Bristol Blenheim Mk IV on static display

Veterans and their stories: Willi and the Messerschmitt

A Tail of a fighter: The Messerschmitt Me BF109E and the story of a veteran

I have recently embarked on a mission of recording some of the amazing stories I have come across as a doctor dealing with WW2 veterans. Many of these stories have been lost, as the veterans pass on. I feel it is important to a least record some of the amazing stories I have heard. Living and training in South Africa I occasionally came across German veterans. I recall seeing a Stalingrad survivor (minus an arm) ; a Dresden Bombing survivor (minus a leg) , and a most interesting aircraft engineer, just off the top of my head.

Post-war photo of Messerschmitt

I met the aircraft engineer in the surgical ward of a Pretoria hospital, when I was still a student. He was a thin, unwell man at the time. He told me he was an engineer, and was, in fact still active. He was sitting up in his hospital bed working on an arched architectural design. He was in his late 70s then, and suffering from pancreatic cancer. We struck up a conversation, with him enquiring as to my German name, and as to where my German family roots lie.

He told me his real passion was for aircraft, and that he was an aircraft and glider designer. Of course, off we went... Aircraft nut in action:

Turns out that he started his career working in a factory where the first Me 109s were built. He related that he lived in a village in the Alps, and had to walk or cycle quite a distance from where he lived to the factory.

Messerschmitt was a hard task-master, and did not tolerate his employees being late. He had a two strike policy. On clocking in late for the second time, summary dismissal took place.

Wartime Bf 109 production line

The engineer in question had worked as a production assistant in the tail-assembly line. At the time (Me 109 B-model) there was a problem with the tail configuration, specifically with the ailerons.

Willi Messerschmitt kept a suggestions box at the clock-in station next to the factory floor. Our engineer took a piece of paper and drew what he thought was as the solution to the tail problem, and had put this in the box some weeks before.

Tail section of a later model- note absence of struts on tail

He relates that he arrived 2 minutes late for work one morning. Fearing for his job he set to work.
Within a few minutes he had a tap on his shoulder: " The Chef wants to see you!"

"Good grief" he thought, "Messerschmitt himself was going to fire me for being late." 

He obediently went up to Willi's office, to find the man there, not with the clock-in record, but with his drawing from the suggestions box in his hand:

 " Did you draw this? " he asked, "Tell me more about your thoughts!"

So it came about that his idea was incorporated into what became the definitive tail configuration for the Me Bf 109E. He was 17 at the time, and only allowed to work in the factory as he was a year to young to go into the army.

On his sick-bed he quickly dashed off a drawing while he was talking. It was, without doubt, the tail assembly of a ME109 that he drew for me. He pointed out what design alterations he had influenced: The shape of ailerons and the support struts.

Messerschmitt and Hitler

He spent the rest of the war working on various other projects with Messerschmit, as aircraft engineer. At the close of the war he hid his tools and instruments in a cave in the Alps.

After WW 2 Germany was not allowed to build aircraft for many years, and he turned his hand to glider design and building. For many years this had to take place in secret, without the occupying US and UK forces noticing. He never lost his love of aircraft and flying.

I only knew him for a week, from brief discussions between ward rounds, and getting my job done, but all the time he beavered away at drawings and designs. He was informed that the public system in S.Africa in the early 1980s could not offer him any hope of a cure for his cancer. 

He decided to fly to Germany to seek treatment there. I have often wondered what became of him, and what other fascinating discussions we could have had on the whole of the wartime he spent working with Willi Messerschmitt.

 I cannot recall his name, but I'll never forget his passion.

Probably the most famous Me109E, that of Adolf Gallant

The Me109E, with the tail struts and the aileron shape

 he could still dash off on a piece of paper 

5 decades or more after working on them with Willi Messerschmitt. 

First Day cover commemorating the anniversary of Messerschmitt's death

Note the Anglicised spelling of Willi (Willy, as he was known after the war)

Cutaway drawing of the Me109