Ordered straight from the drawing board in 1935 the Bristol Type 142, later called the Blenheim was, for its time, a very advanced aircraft but by the outbreak of the Second World War it had been overtaken by fighter development.

Seeing service across all the major fronts of the Second World War, the Blenheim was used extensively by the RAF as both a light bomber and fighter before being phased out of service in 1943, replaced by more modern types less vulnerable to enemy fighters.