Blenheim rebuild

Any truth in the rumour that the Blenheim Mk.1 car was only recently discovered in a Duxford airshow queue? 😮
And you thought you guys had a long wait to get in!

It would be nice to see this nose incorporated on the rebuild though.

Regards,

Paul

brilliant photo – thanks chap!

😀 !

Here’s the nose pics that I took a few years back, inc the official line from ARCo then.

JDK

“Nose pics”! I’ve told you before to stop doing that! 🙂

Mark

Here’s the nose pics that I took a few years back, inc the official line from ARCo then.

Thanks Mike. I thought mine was a high est, but you are right about how low it is!

I’ve searched high and low for the pics I posted. While the search facility is much better, I’ve not found them! I’ll see if I can find the originals at home having cleaned out the images in the hard drive only a few weeks back.

Dave, your comment is quite reasonable; but the Blenheim Team’s original ideas was to be able to ‘swap’ (say at the end of a season) from Mk.IV to Mk.I nose and change scheme. Essentially, the two types are identical except for the nose. (As was the Bolly with the Mk.IV – for the pedants.) The idea of keeping it on as a car was never an idea – an odd car as against a Blenheim Mk.I? No choice really.

Things moved on, and the ‘quick change’ concept died a death I think, and Smudge was working on it in his own time, after the day job – not surprisingly, slow progress.

Dave. Anythings possible in an infinite universe; but consider how long the Beaufighter at TFC is taking; the two restorations of Blenheims by ARCo; the number of Mercury powered a/c flying worldwide (1/2 doz) the number of avaliable Mercury engines, and so on. The Canadian Warplane Heritage have a Bolly and a Lysander under restoration. Bolly is a few years off yet. Let’s be greatful for what we’ve got!

Cheers

Has anybody else stopped to think that in turning the car back into an aircraft nose to recreate the longtime unseen shape of the Blenheim Mk 1, it means destroying a totally unique vehicle which has obviously got a lot of character and charm, and is no doubt quite historic in its own right.

Such a shame. If it were me I’d have restored the Blenheim to Mk IV status (which in my view is much prettier than the Mk 1), and then restored the car as the tender vehicle to take crew from the plane to the hangar/bar.

Having said this it will be interesting to see a Mk 1 flying. I just hope someone else gets one or two Mk IV’s/Bolingbrokes up in the air so both distinctive shapes can be seen.

A lot of work has already been done – I took some photo’s of the Blenheim I nose at one of the Duxford displays a few years ago (Battle of Britain 60th…?) when he Blenheim Society had it outside their marquee. I’m currently going through my photo boxes as and when time allows, and as I now have a functioning scanner, I’ll scan the shots in and post them up.

Certainly when I saw it, the nose was looking far more nose shaped than car shaped. The whole thing had been stripped down and was in the process of being rebuilt; the front wheelwells on the ‘car’ had been covered by new skinning and the rear of the section was definately no longer an Austin Seven. 😉 As an aside, I later helped to return one of the nose car’s seats back to an airworthy condition; it’s now held in store as the navigator’s seat for the Skysport Beaufighter.

Thanks for the Blenheim photo Cestrian!- Cripes they’ve got their work cut out havent they!?

“Note sideburns on younger Spitfire historian!!”

You could have got a job doing the 118 118 adverts!

Flared trousers nicely out of view in the footwell. 😉

mark

“Note sideburns on younger Spitfire historian!!”

You could have got a job doing the 118 118 adverts!

This may have been a Pilatus P2 once in it’s obviously tortured life

Willow

IIRC, they had already started doing some work on the Mk.1 nose with a view to using it in some capacity, even before the crash last year. I have seen some pictures of it that Smudge had and it’s current state is somewhat different to the car picture, ie. restoration is well underway.

I would have thought that the work required to turn the car/cockpit into an airworthy item would be to great. If they want a Mark 1 (why ?) they would be better to contact the Finnish Air Force museum, we I visited years ago they had several mk1 and mk4 cockpits it storage.

DOUGHNUT

…and for optimum handling…

.. try mid engine with four wheel drive.

Paul Jameson’s splendid aero-engined Merlin powered monster.

Not a Merlin based Meteor tank engine.

Dorking, Surrey – July 1975

Note sideburns on younger Spitfire historian! 😎

Mark

Handling problem?

Here’s an Aussie version. I saw this beast on the news recently. It makes my V8 sound like a chainsaw 🙂
—
Allan

Understeer on this one. 😉

Mark

Oversteer anyone??

Just a bit. 😮

Mark

Oversteer anyone??

O/T a little but that awesome Bristol car reminds me of this car i found yesterday, powered by a Merlin from a Spitfire!

Found on this website
http://www.electronicsind.freeserve.co.uk/pat8.htm

Whao !!!
Betcha that thing is a handful to drive !!!!!