Vickers Windsor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Vickers Windsor | |
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| Type | bomber |
| Manufacturer | Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd. |
| Maiden flight | 23 October 1943 |
| Status | Prototype |
| Primary user | Royal Air Force |
| Produced | 1943-1944 |
| Number built | 3 |
The Vickers Windsor was a Second World War British four-engined heavy bomber, designed by Barnes Wallis and R.K. Pierson at Vickers-Armstrongs.
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[edit] Design and development
The Windsor was designed to Air Ministry Specification B.3/42 for a high-altitude heavy bomber with a pressurised crew compartment, and an ability to fly at 345 mph (555 km/h) at 31,000 feet (9450 m)[1] . Notable features of the Windsor included its pressurised crew compartment, four mainwheel struts (each extending from one of the engine nacelles and carrying a single balloon-tyred wheel), elliptical planform high aspect ratio wings, and guns mounted in barbettes at the rear of each (outboard) nacelle, which were to be remotely operated by a gunner in a pressurised compartment in the extreme tail. The Windsor used Wallis' geodetic body and wing structure that Vickers employed in the Wellesley, Wellington and Warwick bombers.
[edit] Operational history
Only three examples (the original plus successive prototypes Type 457 and Type 461) were built in total due to refinements in the existing Lancaster bomber rendering it suitable for the role for which the Windsor had been designed. The first prototype flew in 23 October 1943, second on 15 February 1944, third on 11 July 1944. Two latter prototypes were tested till the end of the Second World War, when further development and production were cancelled.
[edit] Variants
- Type 447
- First prototype, serialled DW506, powered by four 1,315 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 65 engines.
- Type 457
- Second prototype, serialled DW512, powered by four 1,635 hp Merlin 85 engines.
- Type 461
- Third prototype, serialled NK136, powered by four 1,635 hp Merlin 85 engines, armed with two 0.303-in (7.7-mm) Brownings in the nose and remote-controlled barbettes in tails of inner engine nacelles (pair of 20mm guns each) aimed from the unarmed tail turret.
[edit] Operators
[edit] Specifications (Vickers Windsor)
General characteristics
- Crew: 4
- Length: 76 ft 10 in (23.43 m.)
- Wingspan: 117 ft 2 in (35.71 m)
- Height: 23 ft (7.01 m)
- Wing area: 1248 ft² (116 m²)
- Empty weight: 38,612 lb (17,511 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 54,000 lb (24,495 kg)
- Powerplant: 4× Rolls-Royce Merlin inline piston engine, 1,635 hp (1,220 kW) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 317 mph (510 km/h)
- Range: 2,511 NM (4,651 km)
- Service ceiling 27,250 ft (8,300 m)
- Wing loading: 43.26 lb/ft² (211 kg/m²)
- Power/mass: 0.12 hp/lb (0.20 kW/kg)
Armament
- Guns: Four 20 mm cannon in remote controlled barbettes firing to rear
- Bombs: 12,000 lb of bombs
[edit] See also
Related development None
Comparable aircraft
[edit] References
- ^ Vickers Windsor - Bomber (html). Virtual Aircraft Museum. Retrieved on 2008-05-04.
- Bridgman, Leonard, ed. Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft 1945-1946. London: Samson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd., 1946.
- Swanborough, Gordon. British Aircraft at War, 1939-1945. East Sussex, UK: HPC Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-9531421-0-8.
[edit] External links
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