Bristol Bombay

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Type 130 Bombay
Bombay Mark I L5838 in flight.
Role Transport aircraft
National origin United Kingdom
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 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.

Design and development

The Bristol Bombay was built to

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.[1] 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.[2]

Bristol's design, the Type 130, was a high-wing

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 Lewis gun on a Scarff ring but in production aircraft, both gun positions were hydraulically-operated gun turrets each armed with a Vickers K machine gun. Eight 250-pound (110 kg) bombs could be carried on racks under the fuselage.[1][4][5]

A

Harland and Wolff) of Belfast.[4][9] The complex nature of the Bombay's wing delayed production at Belfast. The first Bombay was not delivered until 1939 and the last 30 were cancelled.[4][10]

Operational history

The first production Bombay flew in March 1939, with deliveries to No. 216 Squadron RAF based in Egypt beginning in September that year.[9] 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.[9][10] In June 1940, French pilot Jean-Francois Demozay used an abandoned Bombay to ferry himself and 15 troops from France to England, after which he became an ace with the RAF.[11]

The Bombay's main service was 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.[14][15]

As transports, they ferried supplies and evacuated the wounded during the

Greek Royal Family from Crete to Egypt.[9] Later that month, Bombays played an important role in ferrying troops during the Anglo-Iraqi War.[9][17] Five Bombays were used by the fledgling SAS in their first official operation in the Middle East, a parachute drop on five forward German aerodromes on 17 November 1941.[18]

Bombays evacuated over 2,000 wounded during the Allied invasion of Sicily 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.[20][21]

Variants

  • Type 130 : Prototype.[1]
  • Type 130A Bombay Mk I : Twin-engined medium bomber and troop transport aircraft. Original designation Type 130 Mark II.[22][23]
  • Type 137A Proposed civil transport version. Unbuilt.[22]
  • Type 137B Combi version of Type 137A. Unbuilt.
  • Type 144 Unbuilt development with retractable undercarriage proposed for Specification B.4/34 (won by Handley Page Harrow).[22]

Operators

 Australia
 United Kingdom

Specifications (Bombay Mk.I)

Data from The British Bomber since 1914 [10]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 3-4
  • Capacity: 24 armed troops or 10 stretchers
  • Length: 69 ft 3 in (21.11 m)
  • Wingspan: 95 ft 9 in (29.18 m)
  • Height: 19 ft 11 in (6.07 m)
  • Wing area: 1,340 sq ft (124 m2)
  • Empty weight: 13,800 lb (6,260 kg)
  • Gross weight: 20,180 lb (9,153 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2 ×
    Bristol Pegasus XXII
    9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 1,010 hp (750 kW) each
  • Propellers: 3-bladed variable-pitch propellers

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 192 mph (309 km/h, 167 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 160 mph (260 km/h, 140 kn)
  • Ferry range: 2,230 mi (3,590 km, 1,940 nmi) with overload fuel
  • Rate of climb: 750 ft/min (3.8 m/s)
  • Wing loading: 14.9 lb/sq ft (73 kg/m2)
  • Power/mass: 0.10 hp/lb (0.16 kW/kg)

Armament

  • Guns: 2 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine guns in both manually-operated nose and tail turrets.
  • Bombs: 2,000 lb (907 kg) as 8 × 250 lb (113 kg) bombs on underfuselage racks

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f Barnes 1964, p. 249.
  2. ^ Lewis 1980, pp. 256–259.
  3. ^ Barnes 1964, pp. 202–203.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Mason 1994, p. 277.
  5. ^ Cooling 1982, p. 8.
  6. ^ Cooling 1982, p. 4.
  7. ^ Mason 1994, pp. 277–278.
  8. ^ Barnes 1964, pp. 250–251.
  9. ^ a b c d e Barnes 1964, p. 251.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Mason 1994, p. 278.
  11. ^ Ketley 1999, p. 45.
  12. ^ Shores, Massimello and Guest 2012, p. 448.
  13. ^ a b Cooling 1982, pp. 4–5.
  14. ^ Shores, Massimello and Guest 2012, pp. 448–451.
  15. ^ Shores 1992, p. 44.
  16. ^ Cooling 1982, p. 5.
  17. ^ Shores 1992, pp. 176, 189, 193.
  18. ^ Shores, Massimello and Guest 2012, pp. 309–310
  19. ^ Cooling 1982, p. 17.
  20. ^ Barnes 1964, pp. 251–252.
  21. ^ a b Cooling 1982, p. 10.
  22. ^ a b c Barnes 1964, p. 250.
  23. ^ Barnes 1964, p. 386.
  24. ^ Barnes 1964, pp. 250, 330–331.

Bibliography