Bristol Aero Collection prepares for Bolingbroke

The Bristol Aero Collection is preparing to receive a Bolingbroke from the USA later this year. The aircraft, RCAF 9048, has been stored in Southern California for over 30 years, mostly with the Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation at Chino. It is unrestored, and a restoration to display condition will commence once it arrives in the UK. 9048 has been donated to the BAC by Graham Kilsby, who runs the Bristol Heritage Collection in Tennessee, and started the Bristol Aero Collection in 1988. The aircraft is unusual in that unlike most surviving Bolingbrokes, it was not built as a trainer, and has a combat history patroling for both U-Boats on the East Coast and Japanese submarines on the West Coast of Canada and in Alaska. It is expected that it will be painted in the colours of 8 (BR) Squadron RCAF, with which it served from November 1941 to August 1943.