Vickers Wellington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellington

The Vickers Wellington is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It
was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, led by
Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is
its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by
Barnes Wallis. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry
Specification B.9/32, which was issued in the middle of 1932. This specification
called for a twin-engined day bomber capable of delivering higher performance
than any previous design. Other aircraft developed to the same specification
include the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and the Handley Page Hampden. During the
development process, performance requirements such as for the tare weight
changed substantially, and the engine used was not the one originally intended.

The Wellington was used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World
War, performing as one of the principal bombers used by Bomber Command. During
1943, it started to be superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined
"heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve
throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft.
It holds the distinction of having been the only British bomber that was
produced for the duration of the war, and of having been produced in a greater
quantity than any other British-built bomber. The Wellington remained as
first-line equipment when the war ended, although it had been increasingly
relegated to secondary roles. The Wellington was one of two bombers named after
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellesley.

A larger heavy bomber aircraft designed to Specification B.1/35, the Vickers
Warwick, was developed in parallel with the Wellington; the two aircraft shared
around 85% of their structural components. Many elements of the Wellington were
also re-used in a civil derivative, the Vickers VC.1 Viking.

The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engined long-range medium bomber, initially
powered by a pair of Bristol Pegasus radial engines, which drove a pair of de
Havilland two-pitch propellers. Various different engines and propeller
configurations were used on different variants of the aircraft, which included
several models of both the Bristol Hercules and the iconic Rolls-Royce Merlin
engines. Recognisable characteristics of the Wellington include the high aspect
ratio of its tapered wing, the depth of its fuselage, and the use of a tall
single vertical stabiliser on its tail unit, which reportedly aided in
recognition of the type.

The Wellington typically had a crew of five. The bomb-aimer was located within
the aircraft's nose. The Wellington could be fitted with dual flight controls,
and specialised dual-control conversion sets were developed for the purpose of
performing training upon the type. The cockpit also contained provisions for
heating and de-icing equipment, which was introduced on later models of the
Wellington. The Wellington Mk I had a maximum offensive bomb load of 4,500 lb
(2,000 kg), more than one-fifth of the overall aircraft's 21,000 lb (9,500 kg)
all-up weight. Additional munitions and an expanded bombing capacity were a
recurring change made in many of the subsequent variants of the Wellington
developed during the war, including the carrying of ever-larger bombs.

A key innovation of the Wellington was its geodesic construction, devised by
aircraft designer and inventor Barnes Wallis. The fuselage was built from 1,650
elements, consisting of duralumin W-beams which formed into a metal framework.
Wooden battens were screwed to the beams and were covered with Irish linen; the
linen, treated with layers of dope, formed the outer skin of the aircraft. The
construction proved to be compatible with significant adaptations and
alterations including greater all-up weight, larger bombs, tropicalisation, and
the addition of long-range fuel tanks.

The metal lattice gave the structure considerable strength, with any single
stringer able to support a portion of load from the opposite side of the
aircraft. Heavily damaged or destroyed beams on one side could still leave the
aircraft structure viable; as a result, Wellingtons with huge areas of framework
missing were often able to return home when other types would not have survived,
leading to stories of the aircraft's 'invulnerability'.[5] The effect was
enhanced by the fabric skin occasionally burning off leaving the naked frames
exposed. A further advantage of the geodesic construction of the wings was its
enabling of a unique method for housing the fuel, with each wing containing
three fuel tanks within the unobstructed space provided between the front and
rear spars outboard of the engines. A disadvantage of the geodesic fuselage
structure was its insufficient lengthwise stiffness: when fitted with attachment
for towing cargo gliders, its structure "gave" and stretched slightly. So, while
the airframe continued to be structurally sound, the forces in the long control
runs of cables and push-pull rods to the empennage grew considerably, affecting
controllability of the airplane. This is the reported reason why Wellingtons
(and Warwicks for that matter) were not used as glider tugs.

The Wellington was nicknamed the Wimpy by RAF personnel, after the portly J.
Wellington Wimpy character from the Popeye cartoons.


Role
Medium bomber
anti-submarine aircraft

Manufacturer
Vickers-Armstrongs

First flight
15 June 1936

Introduction
October 1938

Retired
March 1953

Primary users
Royal Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Fleet Air Arm

Produced
1936–1945

Number built
11,461 or 11,462

Developed into
Vickers Warwick
Vickers VC.1 Viking

On 18 December 1939, 24 Wellingtons of No. 9, No. 37 and No. 149 Squadrons
participated in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight against the German fleet and
naval bases in both the Schillig Roads and Wilhelmshaven. The Wellingtons were
unable to deploy their bombs as all vessels were in harbour, thus restrictions
on endangering civilians prevented their engagement. Having been alerted by
radar, Luftwaffe fighter aircraft intercepted the incoming bombers near to
Heligoland and continuously attacked the formation much of the way home. In
total, 12 of the bombers were destroyed and a further three were badly damaged.
Defensive fire from the turrets downed four aircraft.

The action at Heligoland highlighted the Wellington's vulnerability to attacking
fighters, possessing neither self-sealing fuel tanks nor sufficient defensive
armament. In particular, while the nose and tail turrets protected against
attacks from the front and rear, the Wellington had no defences against attacks
from the beam and above, as it had not been believed that such attacks were
possible owing to the high speed of aircraft involved. As a consequence of the
losses taken, the tactic of unescorted day bombing was abandoned, and Bomber
Command decided to use the Wellington force to attack German communications and
industrial targets instead.

Another key decision made was to switch the Wellington to night operations; on
25 August 1940, the type participated in the first night raid on Berlin. During
the First 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne, conducted on 30 May 1942, 599 out of
1,046 RAF aircraft dispatched were Wellingtons; of these, 101 were flown by
Polish aircrews. During operations under Bomber Command, Wellingtons flew a
total of 47,409 operations, dropped 41,823 tons (37,941 tonnes) of bombs and
lost 1,332 aircraft in action.

The Wellington was also adopted by Coastal Command, in which it contributed to
the Battle of the Atlantic. It was used to carry out anti-submarine duties; on 6
July 1942, a Wellington sank its first enemy vessel. Specialised DWI variants
were developed fitted with a 48 ft (14.63 m) diameter metal hoop were used for
exploding enemy mines by generating a powerful magnetic field as it passed over
them. In 1944, Wellingtons of Coastal Command were deployed to Greece and
performed various support duties during the British intervention in the Greek
Civil War. A few Wellingtons were operated by the Hellenic Air Force.

While the Wellington was superseded in the European Theatre, it remained in
operational service for much of the war in the Middle East and in 1942,
Wellingtons based in India became the RAF's first long-range bomber operating in
the Far East. It was particularly effective with the South African Air Force in
North Africa. The Wellington also served in anti-submarine duties with 26
Squadron SAAF based in Takoradi, Gold Coast (now Ghana).

Specifications (Wellington Mark IC)

General characteristics
Crew: six
Length: 64 ft 7 in (19.69 m)
Wingspan: 86 ft 2 in (26.27 m)
Height: 17 ft 5 in (5.31 m)
Wing area: 840 ft² (78.1 m²)
Empty weight: 18,556 lb (8,435 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 28,500 lb (12,955 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Bristol Pegasus Mark XVIII radial engines, 1,050 hp (783 kW)
each

Performance
Maximum speed: 235 mph (378 km/h) at 15,500 ft (4,730 m)
Range: 2,550 mi (2,217 nmi, 4,106 km)
Service ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,490 m)
Rate of climb: 1,120 ft/min (5.7 m/s)
Wing loading: 34 lb/ft² (168 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.08 hp/lb (0.13 kW/kg)

Armament

Guns: 6–8× .303 Browning machine guns: 2× in nose turret
2× in tail turret[note 1]
2× in waist positions [note 2]

Bombs: 4,500 lb (2,041 kg) bombs



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