Original art print of a Bristol Blenheim twin-engined light bomber, as used by the Royal Air Force during the early years of the Second World War. The Blenheim was originally developed as a high-speed passenger aircraft, the Bristol Type 135 and Type 142. The Type 142 caught the attention of the Air Ministry due to its high top speed (at 307 mph, it was faster than the RAF's fighters of the time) and a bomber variant was commissioned, which would become the Bristol Blenheim, entering RAF service in 1937. It proved a very versatile airframe, being used in bomber, night fighter, and reconnaissance variants through to 1944; a later development of the Blenheim, the Bristol Beaufighter, would remain in RAF service until 1960.
Depicted in this illustration is Blenheim G-BIPV, which is today the only airworthy Blenheim. The airframe was built under licence in Canada (as a 'Bristol Fairchild Bolingbroke', a licence-built derivative of the Blenheim Mk IV) and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the war it eventually re-emerged in the 1980s, and was restored to airworthy condition by 1993, but would go on to crash in 2003. G-BIPV was again restored, this time taking the nose of a Blenheim Mk I, which had in the intervening years been converted into an electric car by a Bristol employee. In 2014 it returned to the air re-nosed and re-painted as Blenheim L6739, YP-Q, of No. 23 Squadron RAF. Since then it has performed at numerous aerial displays, won prizes at Goodwood, and featured in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.
This Bristol Blenheim illustration by artist Tom Wisdom is a high-quality Giclée art print on cotton-rich fine art paper. It is ideal for World War 2 history enthusiasts, Royal Air Force supporters, and fans of aviation history more generally.
12x16" art print shown. Cropping and title position (if applicable) may differ slightly on 'A' size art prints.
