The second point on the Air Show was “The Outbreak of the Sexond World War”.
It was a beautiful formation flight of a Bristol Blenheim and three Hurricanes. In the picture top you see Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk Ib “Z7015 7-L” flying to the left of the Blenheim. It belongs to the Shuttleworth Collection.
At the bottom of the picture above is a Hurricane Mk XII “P3700 RF-E“. It was rebuilt in the 1980’s from many Hurricane parts found in Canada but today belongs to Historic Aircraft Collection and is permanently at Duxford.
Finally, behind the Blenheim is a Hurricane Mk I “R4118 UP-W” and this aircraft had 49 combat sorties and five enemy aircraft destroyed. It was shot down in the Battle of Britain but is today the only Hurricane from the Battle of Britain still flying.
The formation flying was perfect…
…but later they split up…
…to show us some fine…
…individual flying.
And did I forget to mention the Blenheim?
It is the only flying Blenheim in the world!
The RAF had more Blenheims in service than any other aircraft when World War Two began!
This aircraft was originally a Canadian built Bolingbroke. The Bolingbroke was the Canadian-built version of the Blenheim IV . It was restored to flying condition in 1993 but crashed while attempting to land at the Duxford airfield in 2003.
As it was again restored the idea came up to make it a Bleinheim Mk I. This was possible through the use of a restored nose section from a Mk I. This nose section has a very interesting story…
Time to land and we…
…say thank you pilots – that was great!
