Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley
Type	Medium bomber
Manufacturer	Armstrong Whitworth
Maiden flight	1936-03-17
Introduced	1937
Retired	1942
Primary user	Royal Air Force
Number built	1,737

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. Armstrong Whitworth Whitley medium bomber. ... A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ... An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, and/or spacecraft. ... Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. ... The Maiden flight of an aircraft is the first occasion on which an aircraft leaves the ground of its own accord. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... A medium bomber is a bomber aircraft designed to operate with medium bombloads over medium distances; primarily to distinguish them from the much larger heavy bombers and smaller light bombers. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian...

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. The Air Ministry was formerly a department of the United Kingdom Government, established in 1918 with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the (then newly formed) Royal Air Force. ... This is a partial list of the British Air Ministry specifications for aircraft. ... Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... This is a list of aviation-related events from 1936: Events February February 13 - Imperial Airways commences airmail services to West Africa March March 23 - Impreial Airways begins scheduled flights between Hong Kong and Malaysia. ... No. ... This is a list of aviation-related events from 1937: Events March March 5 - Imperial Airways opens a new flying boat base at Hythe, Hampshire. ...

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. The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force that was one of the main front-line bombers at the start of World War II. Along with the Whitley and Wellington bombers, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war... The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in Leap years). ... This is a list of aviation-related events from 1940: Events March March 16 - Britain suffers its first civilian air-raid casualties of the war after a raid by KG 26 on Scapa Flow March 25 - the US government grants permission to the countrys aircraft manufacturers to sell advanced...

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. Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... After technical problems with the Comet, BOAC resumed jet service with imported Boeing 707s. ... Gliders or Sailplanes are heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight. ... No. ...

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. This is a list of aviation-related events from 1942: Events January January 30 - Canadian Pacific Air Lines formed by the acquisition and merger of Arrow Airways and Canadian Airways, along with all the various subsidiaries of the latter. ... Lockheed Hudson Mk V The Lockheed Hudson was a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built initially for the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The Hudson was the first significant aircraft construction contract for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation—the initial RAF order for 200...

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. Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Merlin is an aircraft engine built during World War II by Rolls-Royce. ...

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. Coastal Command was an organization within the Royal Air Force tasked with protecting the United Kingdom from naval threats. ... This long range RADAR antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. RADAR is a system that uses radio waves to determine and map the location, direction, and/or speed... U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ...

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). This 'nose down' attitude was first seen in the design of the Armstrong-Whitworth Ensign pre-war airliner. Fig. ... Flaps are hinged surfaces on the trailing edge of an airplane wing which, when deployed, increase the lift (and drag) of a wing by changing the camber of the airfoil. ...

Operators

• United Kingdom
  • Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ...

Civil Operators

• BOAC.

After technical problems with the Comet, BOAC resumed jet service with imported Boeing 707s. ...

Specifications (Mk V)

General characteristics

• 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

• 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

• 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

The distance AB is the wing span of this Aer Lingus Airbus A320. ... In aviation, the Maximum Take-Off Weight (or MTOW) is the maximum weight with which an aircraft is allowed to try to achieve flight. ... The Merlin was a 12 cylinder, 60° V, 27 litre, liquid cooled piston aircraft engine built during World War II by Rolls-Royce and under licence in the United States by Packard. ... Colombo Type 125 Testa Rossa engine in a 1961 Ferrari 250TR Spyder V-12 engine simplified cross-section V12 redirects here. ... VNO of an aircraft is the V speed which refers to the velocity of normal operation. ... In aeronautics, the service ceiling is the maximum density altitude where the best rate of climb airspeed will produce a 100 feet per minute climb(twin engine) and 50 feet(single engine) at maximum weight while in a clean configuration with maximum continuous power. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... In aerodynamics, wing loading is the loaded weight of the aircraft divided by the area of the wing. ... Power-to-weight ratio is a measure commonly used when comparing various vehicles (or engines), including automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft. ... .303 cartridge The . ... The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled . ... The Browning M1919 was a . ...

References

• Donald, D.; Lake, J. (1996). Encyclopedia of world military aircraft. AIRtime Publishing. ISBN 1-880588-24-2. 
• Gunston, B. (1995). Classic World War II Aircraft Cutaways. Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-526-8. 
• Jackson, A.J. (1973). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 (Volume 1). Putnam. ISBN 0-370-10006-9. 
• Cheshire, L. (1943). Bomber Pilot. Goodall. ISBN 0-907579-10-8. 

Leonard Cheshire spent most of his first three years at war flying Whitleys.

External Links

• Whitley Bomber Crews and Their Experiences

Related content

Comparable aircraft

• Handley Page Hampden
• Vickers Wellington

Designation sequence

• A.W.23 - A.W.27 - A.W.35 - A.W.38 - A.W.41 - A.W.52 - A.W.55

Related lists

• List of aircraft of the RAF

  The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force that was one of the main front-line bombers at the start of World War II. Along with the Whitley and Wellington bombers, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war... The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. ... The Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 was a prototype bomber/transport aircraft produced to specification C.26/31 for the British Air Ministry. ... An Imperial Airways A.W.27 Ensign in flight before the war. ... The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.41 Albemarle was a British twin-engined transport aircraft that entered service during World War II. Originally designed as a medium bomber, the Albemarle never served in that role, instead being converted for general and special transport duties, paratroop transport and glider towing. ... The A.W.52 was a British flying wing aircraft design of the late 1940s built by Armstrong Whitworth. ... Many aircraft types have served in the Royal Air Force since it was formed in 1918 by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. ...