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The Bristol Blenheim MK IF was the fighter version of this plane, used as night fighter and long-range fighter during the Battle of Britain. Provided with four 0.303 machine guns on ventral gondola.
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter. It was one of the first British aircraft to have all-metal stressed-skin construction, to utilise retractable landing gear, flaps, powered gun turret and variable pitch propellers. A Canadian-built variant named the Bolingbroke was used as an anti-submarine and training aircraft.
This version shows the modification led to a long-range fighter version; the Blenheim Mk IF. For this role, about 200 Blenheims were fitted with a gun-pack under the fuselage for four .303 in (7.7 mm) Brownings. Later, the Airborne Intercept (AI) Mk III or IV radar was fitted to some aircraft in use as night fighters; these were the first British fighters to be equipped with radar. Their performance was marginal as a fighter, but they served as an interim type, pending availability of the Beaufighter. About 60 Mk IVs were also equipped with the gun pack as the Mk IVF and were used by Coastal Command to protect convoys from German long-range bombers.
The Blenheim fighter units operated throughout the Battle of Britain, often taking heavy casualties, although they were never accorded the publicity of the fighter squadrons.
The Blenheim units raided German occupied airfields throughout July to December 1940, both during daylight hours and at night. Although most of these raids were unproductive there were some successes; on 1 August five out of 12 Blenheims sent to attack Haamstede and Evere (Brussels) were able to bomb, destroying or heavily damaging three Bf 109s of II./JG 27 and apparently killing a Staffelkapitan identified as Hauptmann Albrecht von Ankum-Frank. Two other 109s were claimed by Blenheim gunners. Another successful raid on Haamstede was made by a single Blenheim on 7 August which destroyed one 109 of 4./JG 54, heavily damaged another and caused lighter damage to four more.
There were also some missions which produced an almost 100% casualty rate amongst the Blenheims; one such operation was mounted on 13 August 1940 against a Luftwaffe airfield near Aalborg in north-eastern Denmark by 12 aircraft of 82 Squadron. One Blenheim returned early (the pilot was later charged and due to appear before a court martial but was killed on another operation), the other 11, which reached Denmark, were shot down, five by flak and six by Bf 109s.
As well as the bombing operations, Blenheim-equipped units had been formed to carry out long-range strategic reconnaissance missions over Germany and German-occupied territories. In this role, the Blenheims once again proved to be too slow and vulnerable against Luftwaffe fighters and they took constant casualties.
In the German night bombing raid on London, 18 June 1940, Blenheims accounted for five German bombers thus proving they were better suited to a nocturnal role. In July, No. 600 Squadron, by then based at RAF Manston, had some of its Mk IFs equipped with AI Mk III radar. With this radar equipment, a Blenheim from the Fighter Interception Unit (FIU) at RAF Ford achieved the first success on the night of 23 July 1940, accounting for a Dornier Do 17 bomber. More successes came and, before long, the Blenheim proved itself invaluable in the night fighter role. Gradually, with the introduction of the Bristol Beaufighter in 1940-1941, the Blenheim was supplanted by its faster, better armed progeny.
General characteristics
Crew: 3
Length: 40 ft (12.17 m) (MK I Version)
Wingspan: 56 ft 4 in (17.17 m)
Height: 9 ft 10 in (3.0 m)
Empty weight: 9,790 lb (4,450 kg)
Loaded weight: 14,400 lb (6,545 kg)
Powerplant: 2× Bristol Mercury XV radial engine, 920 hp (690 kW) each
Propellers: Three-bladed Hamilton Standard propeller
Performance
Maximum speed: 266 mph (231 kn, 428 km/h)
Range: 1,460 mi (1,270 nmi, 2,351 km)
Service ceiling: 27,260 ft (8,310 m)
Power/mass: 0.13 hp/lb (.21 kW/kg)
Armament
Guns:
1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine gun in port wing
4 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning guns in foward-firing ventral gondola (Southern Railway gun-pack).
1 or 2 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning guns in dorsal turret.
Bombs:
1200 lb (540 kg)
4 × 250 lb (113 kg) bombs or
2 × 500 lb (227 kg) bombs internally and 8× 40 lb (18 kg) bombs externally
(Source: Wikipedia on line and Historia de la Aviacion de Viscontea, Argentina 1983)
Make a subfolder named Blenheim_I under your CFS aircraft folder.
Unzip the zip file to a temporary folder, it will create the right subfolders, then move all files to the subfolder named Blenheim_I, in your aircraft folder.
Unzip the gauges.zip file to the CFS gauges folder.
New textures of 235 RAF Squadron (sept 1940), reworked non textured parts, moving parts, guns profile (2x0.303 in mg + 4x0.303 in mg + bomb release): Edmundo Abad, 2010.
Also thanks to Christian Maas for his excellent tool Hex-editor XVI32 and Chuck Dome by his MDL file viewer. Without their tools, I might not have been able to assign new textures and colors to the original model.
Thank for all them.
Copyright and Distribution
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This virtual aircraft is released as Freeware. Copyright (C) Edmundo Abad, 12/2010 Santiago- Chile
As freeware you are permitted to use and distribute this
archive subject to the following conditions:
- The archive must be distributed without modification to the
contents of the archive.
- You have no right to include this files in a commercial pack in any way.
- All author's rights and wishes concerning this archives must be
respected.
