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The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, Rex Pierson in response to specification B.9/32. Issued in the middle of 1932, this called for a twin-engined day bomber of higher performance than any previous design. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft. It was the only British bomber to be produced for the duration of the war and was still first-line equipment when the war ended. The Wellington was one of two bombers named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellesley. ==Design and development== The Wellington used geodesic construction, devised by Barnes Wallis inspired by his work on airships, and previously used to build the single-engined Wellesley light bomber. The fuselage was built from 1650 elements, consisting of aluminium alloy (duralumin) W-beams formed into a framework. Wooden battens screwed to the aluminium were covered with Irish linen, which, treated with layers of dope, formed the outer skin of the aircraft. The metal lattice gave the structure strength, because any one stringer could support some of the weight even from the opposite side of the aircraft. Blowing out one side's beams would still leave the aircraft as a whole intact; as a result, Wellingtons with huge areas of framework missing returned home when other types would not have survived; the dramatic effect was enhanced by the doped fabric skin burning off, leaving the naked frames exposed. In one incident, a German Bf 110 night-fighter attacked a Wellington returning from an attack on Münster, causing a fire at the rear of the starboard engine. Co-pilot Sergeant James Allen Ward climbed out of the fuselage, kicked holes in the doped fabric of the wing for foot and hand holds to reach the starboard engine and smothered the burning upper wing covering. He and the aircraft returned home safely and Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross.〔Richards 1995, p. 115.〕 The geodesic structure was strong and light for its size, which gave the Wellington a load- and range- to-power-ratio advantage over similar aircraft, without sacrificing robustness or the protection of armour plate or self-sealing fuel tanks. The construction took longer to build than other designs using monocoque construction and it was difficult to cut holes in the fuselage to provide access or equipment fixtures. The Leigh light was deployed through the mounting for the absent FN9 ventral turret. Nonetheless, in the late 1930s Vickers built Wellingtons at one a day at Weybridge and 50 a month at Broughton in North Wales. Peak wartime production in 1942 saw monthly rates of 70 at Weybridge, 130 at Broughton and 102 at Blackpool. The Wellington was built in 16 variants plus two training conversions after the war. The prototype, serial K4049 designed to Ministry Specification B.9/32, first flew as a Type 271 (initially named ''Crecy'') from Brooklands on 15 June 1936, with chief test pilot Joseph Summers as pilot. After many design changes, it was accepted on 15 August 1936 for production with the name ''Wellington''. The first model was the Wellington Mark I, powered by a pair of 1,050 hp (780 kW) Bristol Pegasus engines, of which 180 were built, 150 for the Royal Air Force and 30 for the Royal New Zealand Air Force (which were transferred to the RAF on the outbreak of war and used by 75 Squadron). The Mark I entered service with 9 Squadron in October 1938. Improvements to the turrets resulted in 183 Mark IA Wellingtons, which equipped the RAF Bomber Command heavy bomber squadrons at the outbreak of war. The Wellington was initially outnumbered by the Handley Page Hampden and the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley but outlasted them in service. The number of Wellingtons built totalled 11,461 of all versions, the last rolled out on 13 October 1945. A shadow factory was set up in 1938 especially to make wings for the Wellington Bomber at Trecenydd Caerphilly South Wales operated by Welsh Metal Industries Ltd, now Trecenydd Business Park. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vickers Wellington」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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