Description
Author: Jarrod Cotter, Hardbound, 173 Pages, ISBN: 9780857338129, H5812, 1st Edition, July 2015
- An insight into owning, restoring, servicing and flying Britain's first all-metal light bomber
The Bristol Blenheim holds an important place in British aviation history. When the first example was delivered to " Squadron in early March 1937, it was the RAF's first all-metal monocoque monoplane and became the fastest aircraf in the air force's inventory. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Blenheim crews were faced with overwhelming odds flying on daylight sorties at low level against formidable enemy defences, and suffered heavy losses.
With the restoration in the 1980s of a Blenheim (G-BPIV) to airworthy condition, a fitting tribute was created to the brave 'Blenheim Boys', and the aircraft became hugely popular with a worldwide audience. The most recent reincarnation of G-BPIV, in its Mk IF night-fighter configuraton, has offered recent generations the sight and sound of an aircraft not seen flying in Britain since the Second World War - the 'short-nosed' Blenheim Mk I.
In the Haynes Bristol Blenheim Manual, author Jarred Cotter tells the Blenheim story from its origins as a civilian fast transport, through a dramatic and varied wartime flying career, including the experiences of its crews, to the 21st century rebirth of G-BPIV as the world's only airworthy example of a truly classic British aircraft.
The author has been given unique and privileged access to the Blenheim project in the Aircraft Restoration Company's workshops at Duxford, along with the opportunity to take the first air-to-air photographs of the Blenheim in its new and beautiful guise. Blenheim Mk I G-BPIV will take its place as the star turn at many air shows, 70 years on from the prototype's first flight.
Author Jarrod Cotter served in the RAF in the 1980s-90s as a specialist aerial photographic reconnaissance technician. He left the RAF to follow a career in magazine journalism with Warners Group Publications, as Deputy Editor of FlyPast magazine, the launch Editor of Aviation Classics and the Editor of Aeroplane Monthly. He now enjoys work as a freelance author. He is the author of Living Lancasters (2005), Battle of Britain Memorial Flight -50 Years of Flying (2007), and co-author of the Haynes Avro Lancaster Owners' Workshop Manual (2008) and the Haynes North American P-51 Mustang Owners' Workshop Manual (2010).
