https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Bombay
The Bristol Bombay was a British troop transport aircraft adaptable for use as a
medium bomber flown by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War.
The Bristol Bombay was built to Air Ministry Specification C.26/31 which called
for a monoplane bomber-transport aircraft to replace the Vickers Valentia
biplane in use in the Middle East and India. The aircraft was required to be
capable of carrying 24 troops or an equivalent load of cargo as a transport,
while carrying bombs and defensive guns for use as a bomber. This dual-purpose
design concept was common to British pre-war designs. Other entries for the
specification were the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.23 and the Handley Page HP.52.
Bristol's design, the Type 130, was a high-wing cantilever monoplane of
all-metal construction. Bristol's last monoplane design, the 1927 Bagshot, had
suffered from lack of torsional rigidity in the wings leading to aileron
reversal. This led to an extensive research program at Bristol which resulted in
a wing design with a stressed metal skin rivetted to an internal framework
consisting of multiple spars and the ribs. This was the basis of the Bombay's
wing, which had seven spars, with high-tensile steel flanges and alclad webs.
The aircraft had a twin-tail and a fixed tailwheel undercarriage.
The aircraft's crew consisted of a pilot, who sat in an enclosed cockpit, a
navigator/bomb-aimer, whose working position was in the nose, and a
radio-operator/gunner, who divided his time between the radio operator's
position behind the cockpit and a gun turret in the nose. When the aircraft was
operated as a bomber, an additional gunner was carried to man the tail gun
position. In the prototype, this position was equipped with a single Lewis gun
on a Scarff ring, but in production aircraft, both gun positions were
hydraulically-operated gun turrets armed with single Vickers K machine guns.
Eight 250 pounds (110 kg) bombs could be carried on racks under the fuselage.
Role
Transport aircraft
Manufacturer
Bristol Aeroplane Company
First flight
23 June 1935
Introduction
1939
Retired
1944
Primary users
Royal Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Produced
1939
Number built
51
The first production Bombay flew on March 1939, with deliveries to No. 216
Squadron RAF based in Egypt beginning in September that year. Although it was
outclassed as a bomber for the European theatre, it saw some service with
British-based 271 Squadron ferrying supplies to the British Expeditionary Force
in France in 1940. In June 1940, French pilot Jean-Francois Demozay borrowed an
abandoned Bombay to ferry himself and 15 troops from France to England, after
which he became an ace with the RAF.
The Bombay's main service was in the Middle East, particularly with 216
Squadron, which operated most of the Bombays built at some stage. When the war
with Italy began in June 1940, in the absence of more modern aircraft, 216
Squadron's Bombays were used as night bombers as well as in their principal role
as transport aircraft. The design bombload of 250 lb bombs under the fuselage
was supplemented by improvised bombs thrown out of the cargo door by hand. The
aircraft flew bombing sorties against targets in the Western Desert, including
Benghazi and Tobruk, and against Italian Somaliland, until the buildup of
Vickers Wellington bombers in Egypt allowed the Bombays to concentrate on
transport operations.
In the transport role, they ferried supplies and evacuated the wounded during
the Siege of Tobruk, while on 2 May 1941, Bombays of No. 216 Squadron RAF
evacuated the Greek Royal Family from Crete to Egypt. Later that month, Bombays
played an important role in ferrying troops during the Anglo-Iraqi War. Five
Bombays were used by the fledgling SAS in their first official operation in the
Middle East, a raid on five forward German aerodromes on 17 November 1941.
Bombays evacuated over 2,000 wounded during the Sicily campaign in 1943, and one
crew was credited with carrying 6,000 casualties from Sicily and Italy before
the type was finally withdrawn from use in 1944.
Specifications (Bombay Mk.I)
General characteristics
Crew: three-four
Capacity: 24 armed troops or 10 stretchers
Length: 69 ft 3 in (21.1 m)
Wingspan: 95 ft 9 in (29.2 m)
Height: 19 ft 11 in (6.1 m)
Empty weight: 13,800 lb (6,260 kg)
Loaded weight: 20,180 lb (9,173 kg)
Performance
Maximum speed: 167 kn (192 mph, 309 km/h) at 6,500 ft (2,000 m)
Cruise speed: 139 kn (160 mph, 268 km/h) at 10,000 ft (3,050 m)
Range: 1,940 nmi (2,230 mi, 3,560 km) with overload fuel
Service ceiling: 24,850 ft (7,600 m)
Rate of climb: 750 ft/min (3.8 m/s)
Power/mass: 0.10 hp/lb (170 W/kg)
Armament
turrets
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