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Bristol Type 130A Bombay Mk I
Design and service history:
The Bristol Bombay, was but one of many bomber-transport hybrids developed for the British Empire during the interwar period. The Bombay was built in order to fulfil Air Ministry Specification C.26/31, which had requested a monoplane aircraft to replace the Vickers Valentia for use in the Middle East and India. One of the stipulations required that the Bombay had to be able to carry 24 troops, or their equivalent in cargo as a transport, whilst retaining the ability to carry bombs and defensive machine guns for use as a bomber. The initial design for the Bombay competed against a modified Handley Page Hampden, and a mostly forgotten aircraft from Armstrong Whitworth called the A.W.23, which I may suggest at a later date.
The design for the Type 130 was that of a high-wing cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction, which took lessons learned from Bristol’s previous monoplane the Bagshot, in order to reduce the loss of rigidity in the wings during aileron reversal. The aircraft possessed a twin tail, common at the time due to the increased control surfaces. The landing gear was that of a fixed undercarriage, similar to aircraft in service at the time. The crew layout for the Bombay consisted of a pilot who had their own enclosed cockpit, a navigator/bombier in the nose of the aircraft, a radio operator who would also operate the forward nose machine gun, and a gunner positioned in the tail gunner position. These guns were initially lewis guns during testing of the prototype, but would be replaced by the Vickers K with the actual production aircraft. This defensive armament was paid with up to eight 250-pound (110 kg) bombs carried on racks under the fuselage.
An initial prototype for the type was ordered in March of 1933, and would first fly on the 23rd of june 1935. The powerplant was two 750 horsepower (560 kW) Bristol Pegasus III radial engines driving two-bladed propellers. The testing was deemed successful, and an order for 80 airframes was issued under the name Bombay in July of 1937. The aircraft was modified from the prototype with the addition of more powerful (1,010 hp (750 kW)) engines driving three-bladed Rotol variable-pitch propellers, along with the removal of the wheel spats found on the prototype. The actual construction of the Bombay was conducted by Short and Harland in Belfast, as Bristol’s factory was currently being used to build the Blenheim light bombers which were deemed more important by the higher powers than a colonial transport bomber. Due to this, the first Bombay was not delivered until 1939, and the last 30 of the now outdated design was quietly cancelled leaving an actual production run of 50.
The first production Bombay flew in March of 1939, and was assigned to No.216 squadron RAF in Egypt, arriving in September of the same year. Though a bit aged to serve as a front line bomber, the Bombay did see service in Europe, ferrying supplies to the BEF in France in 1940, though the main service of the Bombay would be in the Middle East with 216 squadron who would operate most of the Bombay’s built. From Egypt, the Bombay would be used as a night bomber, and the bomb load was further supplemented by manually dumping bombs out of the cargo door by hand. In this configuration, the Bombay struck targets in the western desert, including Benghazi and Tobruk, as well as targets of opportunity in Italian Somaliland until Wellington bombers entered the theatre in significant numbers, allowing the Bombay to return to transport roles.
They would prove vital in this role, ferrying supplies and injured troops during the siege of Tobruk, along with evacuating the Greek royal family from Crete to Egypt. A month later the Bombay’s would play a key role in ferrying troops during the little-talked-about Anglo-Iraqi war. Five Bombay’s were also assigned to the fledgling SAS for use in the Middle East, where they deployed members of the SAS at five forward German airfields via parachute in November of 1941. Another important footnote is that Bombays evacuated over 2,000 injured troops during the invasion of Sicily in 1943, though the extent of this role really comes to the fore front when one crew was credited with the extraction of 6,000 casualties during the course of the Italian campaign. Unfortunately though, the raggity fleet of Bombay’s were ageing and being lost to attrition, resulting in the type being withdrawn from use in 1944, when it was replaced by more modern and capable designs.
Airplane Specification:
General characteristics
Crew: 3-4
Capacity: 24 armed troops or 10 stretchers
Length: 69 ft 3 in (21.11 m)
Wingspan: 95 ft 9 in (29.18 m)
Height: 19 ft 11 in (6.07 m)
Wing area: 1,340 sq ft (124 m2)
Empty weight: 13,800 lb (6,260 kg)
Gross weight: 20,180 lb (9,153 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Bristol Pegasus XXII 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 1,010 hp (750 kW) each
Propellers: 3-bladed variable-pitch propellers
Performance
Maximum speed: 192 mph (309 km/h, 167 kn)
Cruise speed: 160 mph (260 km/h, 140 kn)
Ferry range: 2,230 mi (3,590 km, 1,940 nmi) with overload fuel
Rate of climb: 750 ft/min (3.8 m/s)
Wing loading: 14.9 lb/sq ft (73 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.10 hp/lb (0.16 kW/kg)
Armament
Guns: 2 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine guns in both manually-operated nose and tail turrets.
Bombs: 2,000 lb (907 kg) as 8 × 250 lb (113 kg) bombs on underfuselage racks
Additional historical photos:
Sources:
- Bristol Bombay - Wikipedia (wiki for the class)
- https://www.baesystems.com/en-uk/heritage/bristol-130-bombay (Additional history)
- Bristol Bombay - The Forgotten Work Horse - Forgotten Aircraft - Military Matters (More history and videos)
- The Bristol Bombay transport and bomber aircraft - Its History (More photos and lots of history)
