Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Thanks Andy

Nice site!

Cheers
Stig

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Stig and Andy,

In the Form 78 of L9027 there is the same number (S.3147) for the left engine as was in the BL-123. That made us to think that BL-123 was L9027. It would be nice to see, what the Form 78 of L9026 says.

Matti

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Matti,

The F.78 for L9026 records the engine numbers as 129971 and 129969. The second - and last - unit movement on page 1 was to 'Bristols/4 M.U.' on 2-1-1940. Page 2 notes it was "Sold to Finland 17.1.40".

I am puzzled by your reference to 'S.3147' as the left engine number because S.3147 is nowhere to be found on the F.78 for L9027. The two engine numbers are A130021 and A130011. After 57 Squadron L9027 was sent to the Middle East and later India, before being written off during August 1942.

It looks certain, based on the two F.78s, that L9026 was the aircraft which was sent to Finland.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Thanks Martin. I just forwarded this info to Pentti, who very probably will correct his data files.

Matti

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Martin, Stig and others,

This is getting interesting. British aircraft are outside my limited expertise and Pentti would like to discuss this topic by himself, but unfortunately he is unable to register (when trying it he gets the message "Sorry, registration has been disabled by the administrator").
I'll try to explain our thoughts.
Bristol engines had in fact two serial numbers: Bristol number and Air Ministry number, which were successively arranged in the same row in the manufacturing plate. Bristol number was on the left and Air Ministry number on the right (example S.3147 A130021). In Finland we used always the OEM serial numbers, in this case Bristol number. The British Air Ministry numbering system had no importance in Finland and was not used. In Bristol number the letter “S.” means Shadow factory, but we don’t know its location.
So, when speaking about engine numbers we should know the correspondence between both numbers and the logic, how numbering system worked between the industry and Government.
Based on the data in F.78 for L9026 it seems plausible that BL-123 (possibly) was L9026, but to us the engine data is still obscure and we would like to improve our knowledge base. Bristol piston engine experts, please, open your information chests.

Matti

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

G-AFCE and G-AFCF were first two Blenheims for kingdom of Yugoslavia. I am curious does anybody know the construction number for 20 Avro Blenheim Mk. I delivered to Yugoslavia in 1940?

Cheers

Newcomer

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

They were built by A V Roe, so I don't think they had construction numbers.

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Thanks Andy. It is interesting that Avro didn't assigned c/n for the aircraft from their production.

kind regards

Newcomer

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Andy/Newcomer

I have a fairly complete Avro production list back home and will check when I get back.
(Right now I am stuck on Faero Islands thanks to SAS)

Andy
You can check with Malcolm F since we both had started on one. His was of course much better than mine,
so I adopted his... :)
Ask him and I am sure he will check these Blenheims.
From memory I do think Avro assigned c/n to their military production, at least into the early war period.
No idea if these Blenheims were included, but I think (hope) so.

Matti
Being no engine expert what so ever, I have, sorry to say, nothing further to contribute with on the Finnish
early deliveries.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Bristol Blenheim's
 

Hallo again

Andy was quite correct.
Avro never assigned any c/n to their Blenheim production
As far as I can judge Avro never assigned a single c/n to any aircraft built for RAF during the period 1919-1945.

Cheers
Stig