Armstrong Whitworth Whitley gallery

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was one of three twin-engine, front-line medium bombers in service with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of World War II.

Development

Developed from the A.W.23 bomber-transport to meet Air Ministry Specification B.3/34 and manufactured by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, the Whitley first flew on March 17, 1936 and entered service with No. 10 Squadron in March, 1937. A total of 1,737 Whitleys were produced.

Operational history

Along with the Handley Page Hampden and the Vickers Wellington, it bore the brunt of the early fighting, seeing action on the first night of the war, dropping leaflets over Germany. Along with Hampdens, the Whitley made the first raid on German soil, dropping bombs on the night of March 19-20, 1940. Whitleys also carried out the first RAF raid to Italy in June, 1940.
As the oldest of the three bombers, the Whitley was obsolete by the start of the war yet over 1,000 more were produced before a suitable replacement was found. The Whitley was retired from all front-line service in late 1942 but it continued to operate as a transport for troops and freight (including service with BOAC) as well as towing gliders. No. 100 Group RAF used Whitleys to carry airborne radar and counter-measures.
With Bomber Command Whitleys flew 8,996 operations, dropped 9,845 tons of bombs and lost 269 aircraft in action.
BOAC operated 15 Whitley 5s converted into freighters in 1942. These were needed to run night supply flights from Gibraltar to Malta. They took seven hours to reach the island, often landing during air attacks. They proved to use large quantities of fuel for a small payload and were replaced in August 1942 by the Lockheed Hudson. The 14 survivors were returned to the Royal Air Force.

Variants

Thirty-four of the Mk I and 46 Mk II Whitleys were built, powered by two 795 hp Armstrong Siddeley Tiger IX radial engines. The 80 Mk III aircraft received the 920 hp Tiger VIII engine and a retractable ventral turret aft of the wing root. In 1938 the powerplant was altered to use the Rolls Royce Merlin inline liquid-cooled engine, resulting in 33 Mk IV aircraft powered by the 1,030 hp Merlin IV and seven Mk IVA being produced using the 1,145 hp Merlin X.
At the outbreak of the war the RAF had 207 Whitleys in service, ranging from Mk I to Mk IV types. The Mk IV became the basis for the main wartime production mark, the Mk V, which first flew in December 1938. Powered by the Merlin X, the Mk V had a longer fuselage and a modified tail. A total of 1,466 were built before production ceased in June 1943. The Mk VI was intended to be fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines, but none were ever built.
The final Whitley variant was the Mk VII, designed for service with Coastal Command. The Mk VII was capable of longer range flights and equipped with an ASV radar for anti-shipping patrols. A Mk VII Whitley achieved the first Coastal Command sinking of a German U-boat, the U-206, in November 1941.
Early marks of the Whitley had bomb bay doors which were kept closed by bungee cords, and opened by the weight of the released bombs falling on them. The Mk III version introduced hydraulically actuated doors which greatly improved bombing accuracy. To aim bombs, the bombardier had to open a hatch in the nose of the airplane which extended the bomb sight out of the fuselage, but to everyone's comfort, the Mk IV replaced this hatch with a slightly extended transparency. A distinctive feature of all Whitleys was the high angle of incidence built into the wings because the aircraft's designer was unfamiliar with flaps. As a result, all Whitleys flew with a pronounced nose-down attitude of the fuselage (Gunston 1995).

Operators

United Kingdom

Royal Air Force ( RAF )
British Overseas Airways Corporation ( BOAC ) - civil operator

General characteristics ( Mk V )

Crew: 5
Length: 70 ft 6 in (21.49 m)
Wingspan: 84 ft (25.60 m)
Height: 15 ft (4.57 m)
Wing area: 1,137 ft² (106 m²)
Empty weight: 19,300 lb (8,768 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 33,500 lb (15,196 kg)
Powerplant: 2× Rolls-Royce Merlin X liquid-cooled V12 engine, 1,145 hp (855 kW) each

Performance ( Mk V )

Maximum speed: 200 knots (230 mph, 370 km/h) at 16,400 ft (5,000 m)
Combat radius: 1,430 nm (1,650 mi, 2,650 km)
Ferry range: 2,100 nm (2,400 mi, 3,900 km)
Service ceiling: 26,000 ft (7,900 m)
Rate of climb: 800 ft/min (4.1 m/s)
Max wing loading: 29.5 lb/ft² (143 kg/m²)
Minimum power/mass: 0.684 hp/lb (112 W/kg)

Armament ( Mk V )

Guns

1× .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun in nose turret
4× .303 Browning machine guns in tail turret

Bombs

Up to 7,000 lb (3,200 kg) of bombs in the fuselage and 14 individual cells in the wings, typically including
12× 250 lb (110 kg) and
2× 500 lb (230 kg) bombs
Bombs as big as 2,000 lb (907 kg) could be carried