Well, Well, Wellington

This is the Vickers Wellington. It was designed in the mid-1930s and entered production in 1936. It was the only British bomber to be produced all through the war. It was used as a night bomber early in the war but later replaced by four-engined bombers, so it was adapted for a number of different activities.

One reason for the popularity of the aircraft was the construction. It used an aluminum lattice covered in wood with a doped-fabric skin. Because of the design, large sections of the aircraft could be blown apart and the plane would still be intact. It was fairly common to see Wellingtons coming back with amounts of damage that would take other aircraft down. There are quite a few interesting stories about this:

"In one case, a German Bf 110 night-fighter attacked a Wellington returning from an attack on Münster, Germany, causing a fire at the rear of the starboard engine. Co-pilot Sergeant James Allen Ward climbed out of the fuselage in flight, kicked holes in the doped fabric of the wing for foot and hand holds to reach the starboard engine, and physically smothered the burning upper wing covering. He and the aircraft returned home safely, and Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions."

Also, it was fairly fast to construct. As evident by how some Vickers factory workers broke a world record:

"As a propaganda and morale boosting exercise, in October 1943 workers at the Vickers Broughton factory gave up their weekend to build Wellington number LN514 against the clock. The bomber was assembled in new world record time of 23 hours 50 minutes, and took off after 24 hours 48 minutes, beating the previous record of 48 hours set by an American factory in California. The bomber was usually built within 60 hours. The effort was filmed for the Ministry of Information, forming the basis of a newsreel Worker's Week-End, broadcast in Britain and America."

Another great thing about the construction is it was very light for its size, so the range and payload was very good compared to aircraft of similar sizes.

After the Wellington was replaced by heavier aircraft, the planes were converted for other uses. In this slightly damaged photograph, we see a Wellington with a magnetic ring for detonating magnetic mines.

This Wellington has anti-submarine radar masts mounted on it. While it couldn't be used as a bomber, it became very valuable in other roles.

Overall I would rate the Wellington as one of the best bombers of the war, as well as an all-round great airplane.