1936 жылғы Armstrong Whitworth ұшағы

1936 bomber aircraft by Armstrong Whitworth

The Armstrong Whitworth A. W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World War. Alongside the Vickers Wellington and the Handley Page Hampden, the Whitley was developed during the mid 1930s according to Air Ministry Specification B.3/34, which it was subsequently selected to meet. In 1937, the Whitley formally entered into RAF squadron service; it was the first of the three medium bombers to be introduced. Following the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Whitley participated in the first RAF bombing raid upon German territory and remained an integral part of the early British bomber offensive. In 1942 it was superseded as a bomber by the larger four engined "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. Its front line service included maritime reconnaissance with Coastal Command and the second line roles of glider tug, trainer and transport aircraft. The type was also procured by British Overseas Airways Corporation as a civilian freighter aircraft. The aircraft was named after Whitley, a suburb of Coventry, home of Armstrong Whitworth's Whitley plant.

In July 1934, the Air Ministry issued Specification B.3/34, seeking a heavy night bomber/troop transport to replace the Handley Page Heyford biplane bomber. This combination bomber/transport was part of the RAF's concept of fighting wars in distant British Empire locations, where the aircraft would fly into the theatre of action carrying troops and then provide air support. John Lloyd, the Chief Designer of Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, chose to respond to the specification with the AW.38 design, which later was given the name Whitley after the location of Armstrong Whitworth's main factory. The design of the AW.38 was a development of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 bomber transport design that had lost to the Bristol Bombay for the earlier Specification C.26/31. The Whitley holds the distinction of having been the first RAF aircraft with a semi monocoque fuselage, which was built using a slab sided structure to ease production. Another Whitley Mk I, K7208, was modified to operate with a higher gross weight. The Whitley Mk V was by far the most numerous version of the aircraft, with 1,466 built until production ended in June 1943. Early marks of the Whitley featured bomb bay doors, fitted on the fuselage and wing bays, that were held shut by bungee cords; during bombing operations, these were opened by the weight of the bombs as they fell on them and closed again by the bungee cord. More advanced models of the Tiger engine equipped some of the later variants of the Whitley; starting with the Whitley Mk IV variant, the Tigers were replaced by a pair of Rolls Royce Merlin IV V12 engines. According to Moyes, the adoption of the Merlin engine gave the Whitley a considerable boost in performance. The Whitley had a crew of five: a pilot, co pilot/navigator, a bomb aimer, a wireless operator and a rear gunner. The pilot and second pilot/navigator sat side by side in the cockpit, with the wireless operator further back. The navigator, his seat mounted on rails and able to pivot, slid backwards and rotated to the left to use the chart table behind him after take off. The bombs were stowed in two bomb bays housed within the fuselage, along with a further 14 smaller cells in the wing. On the Whitley Mk IV, the tail and ventral turrets were replaced with a Nash & Thompson power operated tail turret mounting four Browning .303 machine guns; upon the adoption of this turret arrangement, the Whitley became the most powerfully armed bomber in the world against attacks from the rear. The forward surfaces of the wings were composed of flush riveted, smooth and unstressed metal sheeting; the rear 2/3rds aft of the box spar to the trailing edge, as well as the ailerons and split flaps was fabric covered. The tailplanes employed a similar construction to that of the wings, the fins being braced to the fuselage using metal struts; the elevators and rudders incorporated servo balancing trim tabs. At the start of the war, 4 Group, equipped with the Whitley, was the only trained night bomber force in the world. The propaganda flight made the Whitley the first aircraft of RAF Bomber Command to penetrate into Germany. On the night of 19/20 March 1940, in conjunction with Hampdens, the Whitley conducted the first bombing raid on German soil, attacking the Hörnum seaplane base on the Island of Sylt. Following the Hörnum raid, Whitleys routinely patrolled the Frisian Islands, targeting shipping and seaplane activity. On the night of 11/12 June 1940, the Whitley carried out Operation Haddock, the first RAF bombing raid on Italy, only a few hours after Italy's declaration of war; the Whitleys bombed Turin and Genoa, reaching northern Italy via a refuelling stop in the Channel Islands. On the night of 10/11 February 1941, six Whitley Vs of 51 Squadron led by Tait took part in Operation Colossus, the first airborne operation undertaken by the British military, delivering paratroops to attack the Tragino Aqueduct in southern Italy. The Whitley was not always popular with paratroopers as they exited via a bin like chute in the floor. If this was not timed correctly the airflow would drag the paratrooper out resulting in nasty injuries to the face against the lip of the chute known as a Whitley kiss. On the night of 29/30 April 1942 No. 58 Squadron, flying Whitleys, bombed the Port of Ostend in Belgium. This was the last operational mission by a Whitley equipped bomber squadron. In late 1942, the Whitley was retired from service as a frontline aircraft for bomber squadrons and was shifted to other roles. The type continued to operate delivering supplies and agents in the Special Duties squadrons (138 and 161) until December 1942, as well as serving as a transport for troops and freight, a carrier for paratroopers and a tow aircraft for gliders. Long range Coastal Command Mk VII variants were among the last Whitleys remaining in front line service, remaining in service until early 1943. Having evaluated the Whitley in 1942, the Fleet Air Arm operated a number of modified ex RAF Mk VIIs from 1944 to 1946, to train aircrew in Merlin engine management and fuel transfer procedures. The type was typically used for night supply flights from Gibraltar to Malta; the route took seven hours, and would often require landing during Axis air attacks on their arrival at Malta.

No complete aircraft of the 1,814 Whitleys produced remains. The Whitley Project is rebuilding an example from salvaged remains, and a fuselage section is displayed at the Midland Air Museum (MAM), whose site is adjacent to the airfield from where the Whitley's maiden flight took place.