Vickers Wellesley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vickers Wellesley

Type	general purpose bomber
Manufacturer	Vickers-Armstrong Ltd
Designed by	Barnes Wallis
Maiden flight	19 June 1935
Introduced	1937
Retired	1944
Status	retired
Primary user	Royal Air Force

The Vickers Wellesley was a 1930s light bomber built by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd for the Royal Air Force. While it was obsolete by the start of World War II, and unsuited to the European air war, the Wellesley prospered in the desert theatres of East Africa, Egypt and the Middle East from 1940 to 1942.

The design came from the Air Ministry Specification G.4/31 which called for a biplane bomber. The Vickers Type 253 (using a radical geodetic construction that was derived from that used by Barnes Wallis in the airship R100), the Fairey G.4/31 and the Parnall G.4/31 offerings were tested against the specification. None was satisfactory. The Vickers 246 monoplane, which used the same design principles, was then built as a private venture and offered. This exceeded the specification capably and the RAF ordered a total of 176 as the Wellesley, to specification 22/35.

The Wellesley Mk I had two separate cockpits. This was changed in the Mk II to a single piece cockpit canopy covering both the pilot and navigator positions.

Three aircraft were modified for long-range work with the RAF Long Range Development Flight. The additional works included the fitting of extra fuel tanks, and these had a crew of three. On November 5, 1938 two of them flew non-stop for two days from Ismailia, Egypt to Darwin, Australia (7,162 miles, 11,525 km) setting a record.

The main service of the Wellesley was in overseas theatres of operation, mainly in the Middle East. Among its significant wartime operations were the bombing of Addis Ababa in August 1940.

While the Wellesley was not a significant combat aircraft, the design principles that were tested in its construction were put to good use with the Wellington medium bomber that became one of the main types of RAF Bomber Command in the early years of the European war.