NEW AIR FORCE BOMBER

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22595, 28 December 1938, Page 13

NEW AIR FORCE BOMBER

MODIFIED VERSION OF BRISTOL BLENHEIM

SPEED AND RANGE INCREASED

ormox on om eoßßßSPoimxirr.} LONDON, November 3. The speed and range of the fastest bomber yet put into service with the Royal, Air Force are greatly enhanced in the modified version of the Bristol Blenheim monoplane, which is in large production in three factories. Hundreds of these formidable craft have already been delivered to the squadrons. The introduction of ingenious changes in design gives the new Blenheim a top speed of 295 miles an hour, a speed noteworthy in a modern fighter but outstanding in a bomber. This performance has not been obtained at the sacrifice of essential and basic bombing requirements; carrying a full military load the modified Blenheim will fly non-stop for 1900 miles. The nose of the aeroplane has been extended to provide improved accommodation for navigation and bombaiming; it contains a chart table, instruments, a folding seat, and redesigned bomb-aiming facilities. The resultant change in the shape of the nose gives an exceptional field of vision, thereby enhancing the accuracy of the navigation or bomb-aiming duties undertaken.

Extra fuel tanks are placed in the wings. Power is supplied by two Bristol Mercpry VIII air-cooled engines, neatly cowled and merged into the wing contour, with con-trollable-pitch airscrews. Much of the enhanced performance results from adaptation of the engines to suit them for use with “100-atatane” fuel—the highest octane grading yet available—containing special blending agents to increase its anti-knock value. The take-off power of the Mercury engine is raised in consequence to 920 h*p. against the former take-oil rating of 725 h.p., an increase which means that the modified Blenheim, though it carries a much heavier load than its , predecessor, can take-off and climb as rapidly. !

Internal Bomb Cells The Blenheim construction uses the latest ideas in all-metal aeroplane building. It embodies the “stressedskin” covering to the wings and fuselage which carries much of the loads and stresses imposed in flight. The two legs forming the undercarriage are separate units, one under each engine, and folding up within the engine nacelles during flight. Accommodation is provided for the pilot, navigator, and radio-operator-gunner in a cockpit amidships. In addition to large-scale manufacture at the Bristol works, the Blenheim is also in production at the Avro factory in Manchester and at the Rootes “shadow” factory near Liverpool. The performance figures of the older model show a top speed of 285 xp-P-h. at 15.000 feet. It climbs to that height, with a full military load, in just more than 11 minutes. The service ceiling, the height at which the rate of climb does not exceed 100 feet a minute, is 27,280 feet. In spite of its high speed the Blenheim may be landed at only 50 miles an hour, comparable with the landing speed of most light aircraft a fraction of its size.