Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
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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.
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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.
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 33 Mk IV aircraft powered by the 1,030 hp Merlin IV and seven Mk IVA 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 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. The doors were opened by the weight of the released bombs falling on them. Mk III 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. To everyone's comfort, 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 the result, all Whitleys flew with a pronounced nose-down attitude of the fuselage (Gunston 1995).
Specifications (Mk V)
References
- Donald, D, Lake J. (eds.) (1996) Encyclopedia of world military aircraft. AIRtime Publishing. ISBN 1880588242
- Gunston, B. (1995) Classic World War II Aircraft Cutaways. Osprey. ISBN 1855325268
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