Bristol Blenheims, Beaforts and Beaufighters

Originally posted by Growler
Steve,

Was X7688 originally just the centre section with engines and cockpit? If it now has the rear fuselage of an Australian Beaufighter to incorperate into the project, just how much of a complete aircraft do Skysport have, and how advanced is the project?

Yes, originally she was the old Cockpit Classroom at RAF Halton, and comprised the cockpit, forward fuselage, centre section, engines (although by the time of her retirment she had late Hercs fitted, driving four blade units) and undercarriage. This forms her identity. Over the years, Skysport have acquired various parts from various sources, fuselage from A19-144 or A19-148, rear section from Oz (believed unflown), and various outer wing sections, empennage sections and other assorted parafernalia.

When I last saw her a year ago she was still in ‘kit form’, sections being dotted around the Skysport hangar so as to save space and enable the company to concentrate on the jobs in hand. Mainly to satisfy my own curiosity one night, I did a very basic tot-up of the major sections a couple of years ago, and given a bit of reverse engineering to produce a few new build parts I would guess the airframe is substantially complete. Of course, with something as complex as a Beau, you then have to consider the pipework, cabling, electricals, pneumatics, hydraulics… So she’s still got a very long way to go. She was offered for sale about a year ago, but I’m not sure whether that’s still the case.

Steve,

Was X7688 originally just the centre section with engines and cockpit? If it now has the rear fuselage of an Australian Beaufighter to incorperate into the project, just how much of a complete aircraft do Skysport have, and how advanced is the project?

Beauforts.

There the remains of a few dotted around Australia including the AWM completed example now at Mitchell ACt, Ralph Cussak is very advanced with his example and it should fly withinn a few years , he also has about 3 nose sections being restored. There is a largely complete example at Oakey MOAA unrestored as well as parts at Point Cook I believe as well as a Beaufighter.

A lot of Beaufort material was extracted from Tadji PNG in the 70s and this has been distributed to UK (Hendon – sole Bristol A/C left) , the US and Australia – exact details and numbers are difficult but there are more that you might think

Kindest regards
John Parker

Originally posted by Stieglitz
I found it.

The list was in the Flypast edition from november 2000.

You will notice that it also contains the planes from the list of SteveYoung.

Here is it:

1) Mark I/ Identety: ? / Located at RAF Museum Hendon, UK, Cocpit, Stored.

2) Mark Ic/ Id:T5049/ USAF Museum, Dayton, Ohio, USA, composite, Stored.

3) Mark If/ X7688 (G-DINT)/ Skyport Engeneering, Hatch, UK.

4) MK IV / T5298/ Midland Air Museum, Coventry, Warks, UK, cocpit section.

5) MK XI / A19-148 / Robert Greinert Collection, French Forest, NSW, Australia.

6) MK XI / A19-144 / Robert Greinert Collection, French Forest, NSW, Australia, substantial parts.

7) TF 10 / RD253 / RAF Museum, Hendon, UK

8) TT 10 / RD867 / National Aviation Museum, Rockcliffe, Ontario, Canada.

9) TT 10 / BF-10 / Museum of Flight, East Fortunez, Scotland, UK.

10) MK 21 / A8-186 / Camden Museum of Aviation, Kogarah, NSW, Australia.

11) MK 21 / Id: ? / Camden Museum of Aviation, Kogarah, NSW, Australia, cocpit.

12) MK 21 / A19-144 / The Fighter Collection, Duxford, UK. under restoration.

13) MK 21 / A8-328 / Moorabbin Air Museum, Melborne, Victoria, Australia, possebly for disposal.

14) there where reports that the Israeli Defence Force holds substantial remains of a beaufighter, claiming to be from TT 10, RD448.

Note that his is a list dated from november 2000. Some things may have changed, but I think it can give a good idea of the current situation.

Cheers,

J.V.

Okay…

1 – we believe this is actually a cockpit section from a mark II. Some of the cockpit instrumentation and controls seem to bear this out.

2 – I believe this is now on public display.

5, 6 and 12 – these identities are a bit cloudy.

A19-144 had originally been built at Old Mixon (Weston-Super-Mare) as a Mk XI serialed JM135. She was transferred to the RAAF and re-serialed A19-144. She eventually crash-landed at Drysdale strip in Western Australia in 1944 and was abandoned.

A19-148 was also ex-Old Mixon, a Mk XI serialed JL946. She also ended up abandoned on her belly at Drysdale in 1944.

Both aircraft were recovered by HARS (Rob Greinert) around 1980. These two identities have since been combined with the remains of A8-324 to form the basis of TFC’s aeroplane, although the aircraft has assumed the identity A19-144.

Meanwhile, significant sections of A19-144 and/or A19-148 have gone elsewhere to be incorporated in other projects, not least the rear fuselage from either A19-144 or A19-148 having gone to X7688.

Cockpit of G-DINT, June 2002.

And here’s the rest of it :

Originally posted by Stieglitz
14) there where reports that the Israeli Defence Force holds substantial remains of a beaufighter, claiming to be from TT 10, RD448.

“substantial” is a very relative term, here’s RD135 two months ago :

Three
TFC machine (a few years ago now)

That’s the easy ones. Off you all go and do the hard ones. I’ve just covered 3 continents in two hours…

How many can we provide pics of?

Two:

Morrabbin

Originally posted by Flood
Blenheims were used as bombers in France in 1940, and Gladiators were also sent to France too.
I believe Spitfires were held in Britain because there was little else left – even though the French demanded their presence. Spitfires were used over Dunkirk, in fact lots of different aircraft were put into use durring the Dunkirk period (the Blackburn Roc, for example; a type not used anywhere else…).

Flood.

Spits were held back for home defence, and also because it was thought their undercarriages wouldn’t be suitable for operations from rough strips, unlike the Hurricane’s.

Spitfires saw quite a bit of action, especially around the north, and Scotland in particular (16 October 1939 springs quickly to mind).

Didn’t the French just demand more fighters as opposed to specific ones?

I found it.

The list was in the Flypast edition from november 2000.

You will notice that it also contains the planes from the list of SteveYoung.

Here is it:

1) Mark I/ Identety: ? / Located at RAF Museum Hendon, UK, Cocpit, Stored.

2) Mark Ic/ Id:T5049/ USAF Museum, Dayton, Ohio, USA, composite, Stored.

3) Mark If/ X7688 (G-DINT)/ Skyport Engeneering, Hatch, UK.

4) MK IV / T5298/ Midland Air Museum, Coventry, Warks, UK, cocpit section.

5) MK XI / A19-148 / Robert Greinert Collection, French Forest, NSW, Australia.

6) MK XI / A19-144 / Robert Greinert Collection, French Forest, NSW, Australia, substantial parts.

7) TF 10 / RD253 / RAF Museum, Hendon, UK

8) TT 10 / RD867 / National Aviation Museum, Rockcliffe, Ontario, Canada.

9) TT 10 / BF-10 / Museum of Flight, East Fortunez, Scotland, UK.

10) MK 21 / A8-186 / Camden Museum of Aviation, Kogarah, NSW, Australia.

11) MK 21 / Id: ? / Camden Museum of Aviation, Kogarah, NSW, Australia, cocpit.

12) MK 21 / A19-144 / The Fighter Collection, Duxford, UK. under restoration.

13) MK 21 / A8-328 / Moorabbin Air Museum, Melborne, Victoria, Australia, possebly for disposal.

14) there where reports that the Israeli Defence Force holds substantial remains of a beaufighter, claiming to be from TT 10, RD448.

Note that his is a list dated from november 2000. Some things may have changed, but I think it can give a good idea of the current situation.

Cheers,

J.V.

I found a link which gives a list of 50 Blenheim survivors. At first look they are all MKIV or MKIVT.
There are 2 british built examples. One staying in Greece and one in Denmark.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/registry/blenheimregistry/blenheimregistry.html

I know there was a list some years ago in Flypast with the surviving Beaufighters. I will look it up for you and see if there are additions to the list of SteveYoung.

J.V.

The Canadian Beau at Rockliffe. They got gipped by the RAF Museum on this one, but it should be under cover soon.

And the caption that went with it.

A few years ago now, but I don’t think it’s advanced much since then. Smudge Smith was the leading light there.

All this talk and no pictures?

Here’s the Arco Mk.1 nose.

As a recent joiner to this forum I can add Ralph Cusack’s restoration of an Australian Beaufort at Hendra in Queensland. It is a major undertaking and is proceeding towards airworthiness. Ralph’s factory was also the location for part of Matt Dennings Boomerang restoration. The Beaufort, now there’s a forgotten Bristol!

Chris

Originally posted by Flood
[.
There is approximately ONE genuine complete Bristol built Blenheim and that’s the one in Finland (BL-200). There is also the nose (or several noses, maybe) of a mark 1 in Finland. All the other complete examples are Bolingbrokes.
[/B]

Just to be exact, the number of Bristol built Blenheims is zero.
BL-200, a Mk.IV, was built under license in Finland by Valtion Lentokonetehdas (Government Aircraft Factory), at Tampere.
It is complete, awaiting restoration in Finnish AF museum at Tikkakoski, near Jyväskylä, Central Finland. The Mk. I nose is in the Finnish Aviation Museum at Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Originally posted by Hatton
Or perhaps a tupperware seal, it has marvellous preservative qualities, don’t you know? 😀

Would the Mk1 nose on the IV aircraft be an authentic mix? Did the Mk1 and MkIV have the same dimensions etc? I just wondered how such a change would go down with the CAA. Would they be in a way creating a new Mk by mixing the two.

Got a joke about tupperware… what do tupperware and a walrus have in common? They both like a nice tight seal. 😉

Ahem. On to Blenheim noses.

In short, yes.

As I understand it, a number of Blenheim 1’s were converted to Blenheim IV’s by the simple method of flying a Mk 1 into Bristol’s, unbolting the Mk 1 nose section, bolting on a Mk IV nose, connecting all the relevant bits, and flying the thing back out again.

Which oddly enough, is how the ARCo Mk 1 nose managed to survive up to the present day. The Mk 1 noses were presumably stored somewhere on site, and some survived for some time, whereupon a worker at Bristol’s decided he’d try and turn one into a car. He acquired a nose, attached it to the chassis and rear body of an Austin Seven (car connoisseurs please correct me if I’m wrong!), and happily drove the thing around the Bristol area for some years.

Even more bizarrely, the driver and passenger seats in the Nose Car were ex-Beaufighter navigator seats, which had to be doctored slightly (ie, have a big chunk lopped off them) in order to clear the wheel arches for the front wheels. Now, the chap who did it had the remarkable foresight to keep the seat bits that he’d chopped off, and a few years ago, one of the Nose Car’s seats was restored, using both the seat and the chopped off bit, back to being an airworthy Beaufighter nav seat. I know, ‘cos a little while later, I added the studs onto it for the leather seat back. 😉

Originally posted by Dave Homewood
And there seem to be a good number of both Beau types too. Not as plentiful as the Blenheim though. That place in Aussie with loads of Beaus in one facility must have dissolved and dispersed by the look of this list.

Are the East Fortune Beaufighters going to fly? Or the Hatch or Dayton ones?

Aussie place – That’ll be HARS, Rob Greinert’s bunch. Rob is known as Mr Beaufighter in certain circles, and has somehow managed to source some fascinating Beau bits over the years. I believe he supplied the airframes from which TFC’s ‘A19-144’ is being built, both of which he’d recovered from Drysdale strip in Western Australia. HARS have also been responsible for much of the work done to the USAF Museum’s Mk 1C T5049.

East Fortune – There are two Beau’s listed, but one of them, the unidentified Mk II, is just a forward fuselage section which has been loaned out from the RAF Museum for reference purposes. The TF X (RD220 / BF-10) at East Fortune is to be restored to static. Last I heard, a little bit of work had been done very soon after the aeroplane was acquired from South Africa, but this was mostly in order to establish how much work the full restoration would entail.

Dayton – That’s T5049, she’s purely a static.

Hatch – This is X7688, the last surviving Beaufighter 1F, and an aeroplane I know quite well. All the work done on her so far has been done to airworthy standard, and the civil reg G-DINT was allocated in the early nineties. She’s currently in store.

‘A19-144’, the Fighter Collection’s aeroplane, is the one which is most likely to fly, although there are a number of hurdles that the TFC boys still have to overcome. Engine and propellor availability, adaption of alternative engines, construction of tail surfaces, internal wiring and hydraulic systems… Beau’s are a big job, but TFC’s one will fly eventually.

Thanks Steve for that link to surviving Bristol types. That is a great site.

I am staggerred at how many Blenheims and Bollingbrokes remain today. I used to think it was a rare aircraft. Are any of those restorations close to flying?

And there seem to be a good number of both Beau types too. Not as plentiful as the Blenheim though. That place in Aussie with loads of Beaus in one facility must have dissolved and dispersed by the look of this list.

Are the East Fortune Beaufighters going to fly? Or the Hatch or Dayton ones?

I am saddened to see there are no Freighters still flying. One left NZ for Canada only a few years back in flying condition.