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Bristol Bombay and Blackburn Botha


leyreynolds

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From the Putnam series, if with fairly limited coverage: Aircraft of the Royal Air Force; Blackburn Aircraft; Bristol Aircraft. I know of no books dedicated to either type, although I'm sure the Botha has been covered in a past Aeroplane article, and I suspect the Bombay too. Probably some time ago, so I rather doubt that current owners Key Publishing will be able to help, though they might.

There is a currently running thread here on the Bombay, possibly an earlier one.

The only resin kit I know of for the Botha was an East European production, but the only time I saw it was in the window of a model shop in Lucerne, and it was shut.

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I've just obtained kits of both of these - Valom for the first and an unnamed resin for the second - and find I have no references for either. Can anyone please point me to books and or articles?

Look for Air Enthusiast No. 18 which has a full article on the Bombay + photos + cutaway. You could also try Flight Global

Aeroplane Jan/Feb, 1999 has a 2-part article on the Botha

Ken

Edited by Ken
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Hi

My guess is that you have the PH Models Botha which is not a cheap kit by all evidence? I would like to get my hands on a cheap one for sure.

I have a Contrail version of the same aircraft which I plan to make one day and also the Valom Bombay.

There is currently a WIP going on regarding the Bombay and lots of useful info has come to light on that aircraft so you may want to check out that thread?

I have yet to see a PH Botha built up so I hope you get a chance to show us your progress?

Best of luck!

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Thanks for the replies. I have borrowed a copy of AE 18 and the cutaway answers most of my questions. The resin Botha kit was not all that expensive, about AUD 30 + p/p, and a dry run indicates fit is quite good but details espec' internals are sparse. I was hoping for a cutaway.

My late father flew in one during his time at an OTU, from Scotland (Stranraer if memory serves) to Belfast and the aircraft was so underpowered that his crew voted to leave it there and they caught a ferry back!

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The office clerk at Warton, an ex-Lancaster pilot, was once tasked with ferrying a Botha back from Scotland to the South of England. He absolutely hated it, and suspected that he was only ferrying it to a place of scrapping anyway. It is usually said about the Botha that the trials pilot wrote "Entry to this aircraft is difficult, it ought to be made impossible" but I've just seen that quote applied to the Shorts Seamew.

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I think it originated with the Botha: it is something that predates the Seamew I'm sure.

I think Eric Brown is the source I've seen for that comment (reported by him as someone else having said it) and if I recall correctly it was connected to Blackburn being popular with squadrons because they delivered every aeroplane with a crate of booze in the back, but in some cases less popular on account of the aeroplanes themselves.

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I'm not sure if this has been listed, but if you go to the Imperial War Museum website and enter 'Bristol Bombay' in the search box, you will see several good photos of the 1st production a/c, K3583, as well as 216 Sq. a/c L5857, SH-C, L5845, SH-D, and L5838, with no codes before delivery to 216 Sq.

My kit also has the same problem with the severely bent trailing edge fillet; if I can't persuade it back under some hot water, I might have to cut it off and substitute a plasticard replacement. Poor packing and sprue arrangement. Sure is a nice kit, but I'm hoping somebody out there will lead us towards some good detail photos. A pretty handsome beast!

Hope this helps!

Mike

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