The Bristol Blenheim was a twin-engine light bomber designed in the mid-1930s after a Bristol executive bet the Air Ministry that his company's new Type 142 passenger aircraft was faster than any RAF fighter then in service. He was right. The Air Ministry immediately requisitioned the design, and the resulting Blenheim entered service in 1937 as one of the fastest bombers in the world — a distinction it lost almost immediately as European air forces caught up. By the outbreak of war it was already obsolete, yet crews flew it through the disastrous low-level raids of 1940 with catastrophic losses.
The Isle of Man issued an extensive aviation series throughout the 1990s, with individual coins covering specific aircraft types. KM#513a is the silver proof striking of the Blenheim issue, differentiated from the base metal version by composition alone.
The Bristol Blenheim was a twin-engine light bomber designed in the mid-1930s after a Bristol executive bet the Air Ministry that his company's new Type 142 passenger aircraft was faster than any RAF fighter then in service. He was right. The Air Ministry immediately requisitioned the design, and the resulting Blenheim entered service in 1937 as one of the fastest bombers in the world — a distinction it lost almost immediately as European air forces caught up. By the outbreak of war it was already obsolete, yet crews flew it through the disastrous low-level raids of 1940 with catastrophic losses.
The Isle of Man issued an extensive aviation series throughout the 1990s, with individual coins covering specific aircraft types. KM#513a is the silver proof striking of the Blenheim issue, differentiated from the base metal version by composition alone.