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Vickers Type 287 Wellesley Mk I
Vehicle design and service history:
The Vickers Wellesley was an interwar medium bomber developed in the early 1930s in response to G.4/31. This was a specification put out by the air minister requesting a general purpose aircraft that could carry out level bombing, army co-operation, dive bombing, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation and torpedo bombing. This specification took Vickers’ interest, as after the cancellation of their airship programs, they needed a government contract to shore up their aeronautical projects. This private venture resulted in 3 different aircraft which were presented to the ministry,
The Type 253 was determined to be the best submission received by the Air Ministry, thus an order for 150 production aircraft was issued. As a private venture, Vickers had also developed the monoplane Type 256; following flight testing of this aircraft, the order placed for the Type 253 was converted for the Type 256 instead. Two of the three designs put forward were monoplanes, but interestingly, the ministry took an interest in the third being a biplane design, known as the Vickers Type 253. Due to the interest the Air Ministry issued an initial development contract to Vickers in April of 1932. This design would then out compete multiple other designs from Fairey, Westland, Handley Page, Armstrong Whitworth, Blackburn, Hawker and the Parnall, and an order for 150 aircraft would be placed.
Despite the order for the biplane, the Vickers design office continued to work on the monoplane submission, in order to fulfil the specification laid out to them. This aircraft would feature the geodesic airframe made famous by the Wellesley’s big brother, the Wellington, which was derived from work done for airship R100. This design change resulted in substantial weight savings with no loss to structural integrity. This design was also partially incorporated into the Type 253, though nowhere near the extent of the Type 246 ,which would become the Welesley.
Due to this unusual design, the Type 246 absorbed a large amount of development resources top such an extent that a crashed Type 253 prototype was cannibalised to make one of the Type 246 prototypes. The first prototype would make its maiden flight on the 19th of June 1935. Using a bit of political manoeuvring, Vickers managed to change the revised order for 96 Type 246s into 96 of their new Type 253, upon which the design received the name Wellesley. In 1936 this order was revised to include the requirement that the Wellesley would be powered by the Bristol Pegasus XX radial engine. This delayed the design slightly, and the first production Wellesley didn’t have its maiden flight until the 30th of January 1937, before being handed over the the RAF for evaluation on the 18th of March of the same year.
The end result was a rather impressive, if odd-looking aircraft, that from a glance appeared to possess two cockpits. This second canopy in general service was where the gunner would be seated, though Vickers did design a drop in set of modules and controls complete with a new fitted windscreen, that would allow the aircraft to be converted into that purpose for training purposes, which is described and illustrated in the Wellesley’s service manual, AP1524A. Still, it seems this was rarely, if ever, actually done in service, unlike the 3 axis autopilot which was a new luxury for bomber aircraft at the time. The Wellesley also possesses a very high 8.83 aspect ratio wing, along with a manually operated retractable undercarriage. The final quirk of the design is how the bomb payload is carried, as the designers were unsure of how the geodetic structure would deal with being disrupted by a bomb bay, so the Wellesley carried its bomb load in a pair of streamlined panniers underneath the wings.
Happy with this capable if unconventional design, the RAF ordered a total of 176 aircraft to a newly written Specification 22/35 with main production commencing in March of 1937. The vast majority of these Wellesleys were supplied to the RAF, with 6 squadrons of bomber command operating the type at its peak. Unfortunately the ugly duckling was deemed obsolete by the start of hostilities in ww2, so remaining aircraft were sent to desert theatres in the Middle East and East Africa. The aircraft was replaced in the European theatre by the Handley Page Hampden, Vickers Wellington and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, with the Wellington being Vickers’ successor to the design.
Even so this didn’t stop the Wellesley seeing action, and with Italy declaring war on Britian on the 10th of June 1940, the remaining Wellesley squadrons participated in a bombing campaign in East Africa, hitting targets in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somaliland. The Wellesley continued to be used against the Italians in East Africa until September of 1942, as it became increasingly outdated, proving vulnerable to the CR.42 operated in the theatre. Despite being obsolete nearly instantly after entering service, the Wellesley proved an important stepping stone towards the more well-regarded Wellington bomber, which became a staple of Bomber Command during the early war, and its legacy continued into the 1960s, where design choices for its construction were used in the airframe of the Vickers VC10 airliner.
Aircraft Specification:
General characteristics
Crew: 3 (pilot, bomb-aimer, and rear-gunner)
Length: 39 ft 3 in (11.96 m)
Wingspan: 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m)
Height: 15 ft 3+1⁄2 in (4.661 m)
Wing area: 630 sq ft (59 m2) [31]
Empty weight: 6,760 lb (3,066 kg)
Gross weight: 11,048 lb (5,011 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 12,500 lb (5,670 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Bristol Pegasus XX radial engine, 925 hp (690 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 228 mph (367 km/h, 198 kn) at 19,700 ft (6,000 m)
Cruise speed: 180 mph (290 km/h, 160 kn) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m) (57% power)
Range: 1,220 mi (1,960 km, 1,060 nmi)
Service ceiling: 25,500 ft (7,800 m)
Time to altitude: 17.8 min to 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
Armament
Guns:
One × .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun in the right wing
three × .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine gun, one in the rear cockpit, two mounted on either side of the navigators’ position
Bombs: up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs
Torpedos: 1xMk.XII torpedo
Additional Historical Photos:
Photo showing the torpedo trials for the Wellesley, the plane pictured is one with an elongated canopy, which I will delve into in a later suggestion. The torpedo was a success, though due to changes in requirements, it would never be used in mainline service.
Historic drawing showing the geodesic design:
Internal photos:
Photo of a Wellesley on the ground:
Cross-section of the Wellesley:
Photos of battle-damaged Wellesleys:
Wellesleys of 45th squadron flying over Egypt:
Wellesley L2645. Note that a portion of the wing root folded out to form a set of steps to allow easy access onto the wing.
Later Wellesley showing the navigators position modified to hold two additional machine guns:
Sources:
- Vickers Wellesley - Wikipedia (Wiki page for the Wellesley)
- Vickers Wellesley (additional design history)
- Vickers Wellesley Ideas and Inspiration (Source of some of the photos)
- Vickers Wellesley Long-Range Bomber - PlaneHistoria (More history)