# R.A.F. ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH WHITLEY BOMBERS 72072A

This short silent newsreel shows various aircraft flying for the R.A.F. including Armstrong Whitworth bombers, Bristol Blenheim pursuit bombers, and Fairey Battle attack bombers. These aircraft were all developed in the inter-war period. The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter. It was one of the first British aircraft to have all-metal stressed-skin construction, retractable landing gear, flaps, a powered gun turret and variable-pitch propellers. A Canadian-built variant named the Bolingbroke was used as an anti-submarine and trainer. The Blenheim Mk I outran most biplane fighters in the late 1930s but stood little chance against the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 during daylight operations, though it proved successful as a night fighter. The Mark IV variant was equally unsuccessful in its daylight bombing role, suffering many losses in the early stages of the war. The Fairey Battle was a British single-engine light bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company in the late 1930s for the Royal Air Force. The Battle was powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that gave contemporary British fighters\[N 1\] high performance; however, the Battle was weighed down with a three-man crew and a bomb load. Despite being a great improvement on…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/72072ARAFBombers)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/72072ARAFBombers?play=1)