As we put the finishing touches to last weeks Newsletter, we received information which warmed the heart of every historic aviation enthusiast in Great Britain – The Bristol Blenheim had made it’s first post restoration flight! In the late evening sunshine on 20th November, Blenheim G-BPIV majestically rose in to the sky above IWM Duxford, after eleven years spent in various hangars at the Cambridgeshire airfield and successfully completed it’s first post restoration sortie. This project has to be one of the most eagerly anticipated ‘first flights’ in the world of historic aviation, particularly as we have been afforded tantalising glimpses of an almost complete aircraft for the majority of this year – in fact, it was rumoured that the aircraft would take it’s place in the static line up at this years Duxford Flying Legends Airshow, but many were left disappointed as this did not happen. Without doubt, this unique and extremely rare aeroplane will be one of the highlights of the 2015 Airshow season and I am sure that many of us are already thinking of an excuse to head down to Duxford, at the earliest opportunity.
Bristol Blenheim at Coventry Airshow 2003
This weeks header image is a rather interesting one, both in the history of Blenheim G-BPIV and of my photographic development. At the 2003 Coventry Airshow, I was helping my friend on the Corgi Heritage Centre stall, whist grabbing as many photographs as I possibly could. At this time, I was still very much using slide film, but I had just bought my first digital bridge camera, to see if there was any merit in this new technology. The above picture was taken with a rather basic Minolta digital camera and shows Bristol Blenheim G-BPIV in her previous guise as a ‘long nosed’ Mk.IV machine. Fortunately for us, our pitch was right in front of the Blenheim, so we were able to fill our senses with sight and sounds of this magnificent aircraft over the weekend and I managed to capture one or two images. As many of you will know, this was one of the last Airshow appearances the aircraft made, as it was involved in a landing accident at Duxford less than three months after this picture was taken, so news of it’s resurrection last week was greeted with great excitement. One of only two British WWII bomber aircraft still flying, the Blenheim now looks very different from the aircraft that we saw at Coventry in 2003. Rather than the later Mk IV ‘long nose’, the aircraft has now been finished with the much shorter Mk.I nose, which really does have a dramatic effect on the profile of the Blenheim, but allows us to see the early version of the aircraft, which served during the early period of WWII, including the Battle of Britain. I am itching to see this beauty for myself, in the very near future and hope to bring you my own personal report in a future edition of our Newsletter – I do have to say that 2015 is shaping up very nicely for the UK historic aviation enthusiast!
The Blenheim in Die-cast
If there is one thing that Corgi do extremely well, it is producing beautiful WWII ‘Twin’ aircraft models for our delectation and the Bristol Blenheim is no exception. With some absolutely magnificent twin engined aircraft models in their inventory, from both Allied and Axis air forces, their Bristol Blenheim tooling has to be described as something of a classic and each and every previous release has sold out. The latest release was AA38406, which presented us with Blenheim Mk.I L1134, which was flown by Victoria Cross winner Arthur Scarf and is yet another Sell Out release from Corgi. There are many actions that took place during WWII, that simply leave us humbled and filled with admiration for these selfless acts of courage and heroism – one such action involved a 28 year old Squadron Leader Arthur Stewart King Scarf. As Japanese forces were rampaging across the Far East in December 1941, a maximum effort was called for, by all available aircraft, to prevent the Japanese from taking Singora, in Siam and Squadron Leader Scarf was to lead the raid.
Disaster on take off
As the aircraft formed up for take off at the RAF airfield at Butterworth, Scarf led the group and raced down the runway and into the air. At this exact moment, a swarm of Japanese aircraft descended on the airfield and destroyed, or disabled all the other aircraft intending to take part in the raid, leaving a scene of utter carnage. Surely a lone raid by one Blenheim would be futile, but nonetheless, Scarf and his crew flew on to Singora and completed their bombing run, despite being hopelessly outnumbered and coming under constant attack. On the way back to their base, the Blenheim again came under concerted enemy attack, inflicting severe wounds on Scarf, who was by now, drifting in and out of consciousness. Despite his injuries, he managed to crash land his aircraft without causing further injury to his crew members, but succumbing to his own severe injuries just two hours later.
Due to the absolute chaos in Malaya at the time and the onslaught of the Imperial Japanese forces, it was some time before the heroic nature of the brave, lone attack carried out by Scarf and his crew became known to military officials. Indeed, it was after the war that Scarf posthumously received his Victoria Cross, which is now on display at the Royal Air Force museum, Hendon. Awards were also given to the two other crew members on this fateful flight – Sergeant Paddy Calder (later to become Squadron Leader) was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and Sergeant Cyril Rich (who was killed in action in 1943) received a posthumous ‘Mentioned in Despatches’.
Corgi’s latest SELL OUT Blenheim AA38406, is a beautiful representation of the aircraft which took part in the heroic lone Singora raid, flown by Scarf and his crew. It is a stunning early mark machine, which is the configuration of G-BPIV, which has just made its first post restoration flight at Duxford. As we have already said, this magnificent model is a sell out release and we only have THREE models still available – we expect to see all three go really quickly this weekend, particularly as we have reduced the price by £10.00 on these last three pieces. To grab one of the last three Blenheims we will ever have in stock, please click on this Bristol Blenheim link, to be taken straight to this section of our website.
Colourful Spitfires
The Supermarine Spitfire is very much a British icon and one of the most famous aircraft ever to have taken to the sky. Despite it’s undeniable Britishness, the Spitfire was to fly in the colours of many air arms over it’s service life, with some of them being much more colourful than the rather conservative presentation of the Royal Air Force machines. Some of the most attractive Spitfires were operated by USAAF units, who were keen to exploit the virtues of the much heralded Spitfire. Famous pilots such as Francis ‘Gabby’ Gabreski, Don Gentile, Duane Beeson, Don Blakeslee and Pete Peterson all flew the Spitfire during their time with the famed Eagle Squadrons, but when America entered the war in late 1941, they still retained their interest in the Spitfire. Indeed, some 22 USAAF pilots went on to become ‘Aces’ exclusively on the Spitfire, with a further 24 eventual aces using the Spitfire for some of their combat victories!
Leland P Molland and his ‘Fargo Express’
One of the most colourful Spitfires used by a USAAF pilot was this Mk.VIII machine, named ‘Fargo Express’. The mount of Lt. Leland P Molland, Spitfire HL-K flew from Castel Volturno, in Italy, against both Italian and Luftwaffe units and enjoyed particular success against the Focke Wulf FW 190. Flying with the USAAF 308th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, this beautiful Spitfire clearly shows the marks left by its previous operators – in the picture above, you can see the marks left on the wings by removing the RAF roundels, before applying the US insignia, which helps to make this not only one of the most colourful Spitfires of WWII, but also one with a very interesting history. In December 1943, Molland was flying this Spitfire on a bomber escort mission, over Southern Italy – this was one of his first combat missions, as he had only just arrived in theatre. The formation was attacked by a large number of Focke Wulf FW 190 fighters and Molland and his ‘Fargo Express’ accounted for two of the Luftwaffe machines – indeed, he was to claim 5 enemy fighters whilst using this distinctive Spitfire, out of a total victory tally of 10.5 enemy aircraft.
Our latest OFFER OF THE WEEK group of models includes our last remaining stocks of this stunning ‘Fargo Express’ Spitfire Mk. VIII – coming in the spectacular Hobbymaster 1/48th scale range, this definitely has to be one of the most attractive models in the range. With very few models still remaining, we are making our final stocks available at a spectacular discount – indeed, we are selling this beautiful 1/48th scale Spitfire for the price of a 1/72nd scale alternative – just £34.99 each! With very few models still available, we would expect this beauty to absolutely fly off the shelves, so please do not delay in making your selection – to keep this Spitfire company and maintaining this USAAF Spitfire connection, we are also making this superb Spitfire Mk. IX, flown by Francis ‘Gabby’ Gabreski available. One of the famed ‘Eagle Squadron’ pilots of WWII, Gabreski went on to be the top scoring US fighter ace of the European Theatre, but his time flying the British Spitfire is marked by the release of this magnificent model. At the same low price, both of these models can be viewed and secured by clicking on this OFFER OF THE WEEK link now!
British Eagle BAC-111 models in 1/200th scale
Our final OFFER OF THE WEEK models for this week are a pair of absolutely beautiful 1/200th scale BAC-111 collectables in the AK200 range. Many of these releases are produced in really small quantities, which are of definite interest to the CIVILIAN AVIATION collector and this pair are certainly no exception. With just 156 pieces of each model being manufactured, these have some of the smallest production runs of any model that we have ever had in stock at Flying Tigers and collectors who have them within their collections have something very special indeed. The two aircraft that we have available are AK017, which is G-ATPH ‘SALUTE’ and AK018, which is G-ATPK ‘SPUR’ – both are in this classic British Eagle livery and both are being made available for just £39.99 each, which represents a massive saving on the previous price of the models. With very few of each still available, please click on this OFFER OF THE WEEK link, to be taken straight to this section of our website. We end our latest Newsletter with an image of one of these beautiful British Eagle BAC 111 models, which allows you to take a closer look at one of these stunners! They really would be a real treat for any civilian aviation collector.