CWH Bolingbroke restoration update

[CWH Museum]

Now that the Lysander restoration is almost complete, attention will now focus to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Bristol (Fairchild built) Bolingbroke Mk. IV. To the casual observer, it doesn't appear much progress is being made when in fact there has been. The centre section is progressing well and we anticipate the final metal being bent for the last spar replacement by the end of May. If all goes well, the spars will be complete on the centre section by the fall and the trailing edges will then be installed. Once the centre section is complete, we can begin the long awaited task of joining it to the cockpit section and fuselage to hopefully have the Boly on its' landing gear by the end of the year. Once the jig is empty of the centre section, we can use it to begin work on the wings. Many components have been overhauled and are awaiting their time for installation. Work on the nose glass is progressing and the windshields were recently installed. We are still faced with the enormous tasks of getting two airworthy Bristol engines ready. We have numerous cores to work with and some useable parts.

Although we still have several major hurdles to overcome, there is no way this project would be this far along without our dedicated group of volunteers, several of whom are retired and one who had experience with them in the war. Without their twice a week (or more) trip to the hangar, the Boly would not be where it is today! No one ever said this was going to be easy. Date to fly: 201?.

[Matt Gunsch]

Looking good, and I hope you guys will have better luck than the group in England.

[Jack Cook]

Is that one of Wes Agnew's old a/c?? I think I stilll have
some pictures from him of all 3 of them.

[Forgotten Field]

Is the aircraft basically a Blenheim, or is it a completely different aircraft?

[BLR]

We are still faced with the enormous tasks of getting two airworthy Bristol engines ready. We have numerous cores to work with and some useable parts.

I thought I read somewhere that the CWH Boly would use Pratt & Whitney R-1535 engines like in the MK IVW ?

Thanks for the update.

Brian.

[peter]

Great news on the Boly. I do hope progress speeds up now and we can see the Bolingbroke in the air by 201?

[Steve Nelson]

Is the aircraft basically a Blenheim, or is it a completely different aircraft?

It's basically a Canadian built Blenhiem Mk IV. It'll be great to see her start looking like an airplane again!

SN

[JDK]

Good to have an update.

Is the aircraft basically a Blenheim, or is it a completely different aircraft?

It's basically a Canadian built Blenhiem Mk IV. It'll be great to see her start looking like an airplane again!

Steve's correct. External differences are a slightly larger 'beetleback' on the nacelles for a dinghy, and a porthole for the W/Op A/G in the rear fuselage. There were differences in control layout and Canadian kit rather than British inside as well, of course.

Bristol engines will be the joker.

[Steve Nelson]

I realize it's still very early in the process, but any idea what kind of markings the CWH Boly will have? I'll go out on a limb and predict something...yellow.

For no apparent reason, here are a couple shots I took of the Boly in the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa a couple years ago.

SN

[APG85]

Very neat!

[Michel Lemieux]

The Boly in Ottawa is a real time capsule. It is all original including the interior wood insulation on the walls and floor.

It is now so brittle that no one is allowed inside.

Glad to hear about the CWH Boly. I guess it must have taken the backburner until the Lizzy got done.

It more or less looks the same as I last saw it 10 years ago. Minus the undercarriage assembly.....which seems a real pain in the ###@@# to restore.........................


Ahhhhhh.............The joys of pre-war British design restoration.

Same question....talking a good while ago with someone named Wayne X ( cannot remember the name ) I was told they would install Wasp Juniors engines like the Mk IV-W version. They even where able to find the drawings of the engine mounts though US P&W archives.

Any chances of putting floats on ?

[JDK]

The Boly in Ottawa is a real time capsule. It is all original including the interior wood insulation on the walls and floor.

Interesting, I didn't know that!

The engines are the Canadian versions, with the 'winterised' equipment - an extra long scoop on the underside (carb air intake heating?) plus the extra intakes inside the top cowling.

Note the difference between the engine in this wartime Charles E Brown shot of an RAF Blenheim IV, and Steve's shots above.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Blenheim

[Clifford Bossie]

It is interesting to see that restoration in progress. Thank you for posting.

Pima recently restored their Bolingbroke.

[BLR]

It is interesting to see that restoration in progress. Thank you for posting.

Pima recently restored their Bolingbroke.

Very nice. I'm not an expert on paint schemes, but isn't the tri coloured fin-flash pointing the wrong way? I thought the red always pointed in the direction of flight?

Thanks for posting the pic, the Boly looks great.

Brian.

[k5083]

Any resemblance between the Pima restoration paint job and actual RAF colours and markings is entirely coincidental.

August