Page 16 - March2020

Rolls-Royce Merlin 224

Bristol “Bolingbroke” Mark IV

The Battle of Britain was won by the RAF’s Fighter
The name “Bolingbroke” was originally applied to the
Command and the air war then taken to the Nazis
long-nosed version of the UK’s Bristol “Blenheim” light
by Bomber Command. None of this would have
bomber, but was subsequently used to designate all
Canadian licence-built aircraft of this type. The been possible without one common factor -the
Merlin, an engine that is said to have won the
“Blenheim” was the fastest combat aircraft of its day,
war. Of the 160,000 Merlin’s manufactured,
owing its origins to a mid-1930s executive aircraft! The
British Air Ministry soon ordered a bomber version and it 60,000 were produced by Packard in the USA.
was produced in large numbers, including licence The Merlin’s first flight was also that of the
production of 676 by Fairchild at Longueil, Quebec. Hawker Hurricane. The engine went on to power
Unfortunately it was approaching obsolescence by the the Spitfire, Mustang, Whitley, Lancaster,
outbreak of the Second World War, but it continued to Mosquito, Halifax, and many others.
be widely deployed.
The sound of the Merlin evokes great emotion to
The Pacific those who appreciate the sacrifices made by the
Coast of aircrew of these World War II aircraft.
Canada saw
Click the picture to watch a Hawker Hurricane and
them used for HEAR the Merlin 224
patrol and
training, and a
number were
based at
Patricia Bay.

Our “Bolingbroke” is actually parts of two, one of which
was found in pieces on a farm on Salt Spring Island. The
fuselage was not salvageable, so one was acquired in
Manitoba. With the help of a “Go-BC Grant” volunteers
restored the hybrid aircraft by 1996, and it was painted in
the colours of #3 Operational Training Unit which had
been based at Patricia Bay during the War.