Vickers Wellesley
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The Vickers Wellesley was a 1930s light bomber built by Vickers 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 were satisfactory. The Vickers 246 monoplane which used the same design principles was then built as a private venture and offered. This exceeded the specification capabably and the RAF ordered a total of 176 as the Wellesley.
The Wellesley Mk 1 had two separate cockpits. This was changed in the MK 2 to a single piece cockpit
Three aircraft were modified for long-range work including 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 Egypt to Darwin Australia (7,162 miles, 11,525 km) setting a record.
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.
Specifications (Wellesley)
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