| Blenheim Mk I losses.
The losses were caused by two factors. There were no conversion units in those far off days and the poor layout of the secondary controls. The new pilot would be shown the taps and he was on his own!
The pitch change controls were two push/pull plungers behind the pilot's left elbow, just below two identical plungers for the carburettor cut outs-the latter were soon guarded by a sprung flap! Like the throttles they were painted red and green for port or starboard engine, but that wasn't much use at night unless the pilot had colour sensitive elbows! The hydraulic system was controlled by three identical push/pull stirrup plungers down by the pilots right thigh-and the circuit had first to be energised from 'Neutral' by selecting either 'Undercarriage and Flaps' or
'Turret' followed by pushing or pulling the flaps or undercarriage selector up or down as needed. It was all too easy to retract the undercarriage rather than the flaps after landing, especially at night. Pilots had to remember to first activate the control to provide pressure in the correct circuit before raising or lowering the wheels or flaps, or providing hydraulic power to the turret. If he didn't do this, nothing happened, imagine, Me 109 attacking and no turret!
The fuel cocks were on the right hand wall of the cockpit 'behind' the pilots right shoulder and difficult to reach from his seat,(as were the winders for the cowl cooling gills) The fuel gauges were mounted in the roof behind his head!
All this on top of the dangers of flying a new type in the last year before the war. There were no OTUs and its no wonder that the RAF lost over 10% of its Blenheim strength in that year alone.
They even had the idiotic idea of bolting a four gun pack under the Blenheim and making a night fighter out of it, HELLO!, it could only reach 230 mph!!!!
Ken |