Cor! It's the Blackburn Bramley!

**Spinners** · August 29, 2023

Blackburn Bramley Mk.I - No.10 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1937

Air Ministry Specification B.9/32 issued in 1932 called for a twin-engined day bomber with high performance and unlike many contemporary Air Ministry Specifications there was no restriction on aircraft empty weight. Vickers, Handley Page and Blackburn all responded and all three companies designed distictly different aircraft ranging in weight from the Vickers Type 271 (Wellington) at 18,000lbs empty weight, through to the Handley Page HP.52 (Hampden) at 12,500lbs empty weight and down to the Blackburn B-6 at just 10,000lbs empty weight. Air Ministry officials were critical of the Blackburn design for being deficient in range and payload but conceded that the design had potential and therefore issued Air Ministry Specification B.27/33 for a twin-engined light bomber to cover a production order for 100 Blackburn B-6 aircraft later christened as the Blackburn Bramley.

The development of the Blackburn Bramley moved smoothly during 1934 with no technical issues and on July 14th,1935 the prototype Bramley (K4012) made it's first flight almost a full year ahead of the Vickers Wellington and Handley Page Hampden. Flight-testing was helped by the Bramley being powered by the trouble-free Bristol Perseus nine-cylinder, single-row radial engine. Initially rated at a modest 580 h.p. the Perseus was quickly uprated as improvements were introduced and by 1936 production engines were delivering 810 h.p. which was adequate for the lightly armoured Bramley. Entering service with No.10 Squadron of RAF Bomber Command in May 1937 the Bramley Mk.I's initially wore the same NIVO green as the Handley Page Heyford's they had replaced but later switched to the dark earth and green camo with black undersides as used on Bomber Command's other new aircraft.

By the time of the Munich Crisis in September 1939 four squadrons of Bomber Command were operating the Bramley but by the start of World War 2 the Bramley had passed from front-line service in the UK but would return to service with the RAF in the Middle-East at the end of 1940.