Wellington Bomber

Wellington Bomber

The Wellington bomber, produced by Vickers, was first deployed in 1938. It was known for its ability to absorb enormous amounts of punishment from both anti aircraft batteries and enemy aircraft. This is credited to the unique design of the aircraft which incorporated a metal mesh airframe. The airframe was covered in fabric.

There were six squadrons of the Wellington bomber based in England at the beginning of the Second World War. These were immediately pressed into service. They became the main British attack aircraft of the time. This continued until they were replaced by larger, four engine aircraft.

The Wellington bomber received upgrades throughout its production history. This consisted of greater streamlining, including a retractable tail wheel, additional defensive gun turrets, larger main wheels, and more powerful engines.

Unfortunately, the Wellington bomber was not equipped with self sealing fuel tanks, and proved vulnerable to enemy fighters. It had much more success at night sorties, flying long missions into Germany and Italy.

The Wellington bomber was eventually deployed to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East where it served successfully.

On the home front the Wellington bomber was used by the Coastal Command for anti submarine warfare and against enemy mines. The mines were destroyed by use of an on-board magnetic field generator which set them off while the aircraft made a low overhead pass.

After the War the aircraft served to train new RAF pilots through 1955. A total of 11,461 Wellington bomber aircraft of all types were produced.