Vickers Wellesley Mark I, 47 Sqn RAF, East Africa 1941/42

The Vickers Wellesley was a British 1930s light bomber built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Brooklands near Weybridge, Surrey, for the Royal Air Force. While it was obsolete by the start of the Second World War and unsuited to the European air war, the Wellesley was operated in the desert theatres of East Africa, Egypt and the Middle East. It was one of two planes named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellington.

" ...By the time I arrived at Brooklands in July 1937 the Vickers Wellesley was in full production. This aircraft was a "geodectic" forerunner of the Wellington and was a large single-engined monoplane powered by a Bristol radial engine which was sometimes prone to failure. If this occurred on take-off one might fail to clear the banking of the rack-track, and the trees immediately beyond, but if one was lucky enough to do that one was bound for the cemetery just ahead. Presumably all that was necessary then was to shovel the earth over one..."

D. Bradley-Watson's Brooklands recollections appeared in Motorsport magazine in December 1971;

Wellesley, 47 Sqn RAF, East Africa 1941/42,

 Wellesley Mark I, L2673 ‘KU-C’, of No. 47 Squadron RAF based at Agordat, Eritrea, in flight over the rugged landscape of Eritrea.

Armourers of of No. 47 Squadron RAF fill Small Bomb Containers with incendiaries before loading them into the underwing panniers of Vickers Wellesley Mark I, K8527, at Kassala, Sudan, for a bombing raid on Italian positions in Eritrea. K8527 was shot down by Italian fighters over Keren on 16 March 1941. Note that this aircraft is fitted with a lengthened cockpit canopy.

Vickers Wellesley " long-range experimental bomber "

Below; A Flight Sergeant gives last minute instructions to an air gunner of 14 Squadron, Royal Air Force, before one of the unit's Vickers Wellesley aircraft takes off from RAF Amman in Transjordan.

© IWM (H(AM) 380)

first Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) of UK's F-35 B

A revolutionary method of landing an F-35 Lightning fighter jet on board a ship has been carried out for the first time on board the UK’s newest aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

British test pilot Peter Wilson made history when he conducted the first ever shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) this weekend – a method which looks like a conventional aircraft landing but requires even more intense skill and precision. Previously the jets have conducted only vertical landings, hovering by the side of the ship before moving sideways over the deck and gently lowering down.

A rolling landing however requires the jet to make a more conventional landing approach, approaching the ship from behind at speed, before using thrust from its nozzle and lift created by air over the wings to touch down and gently come to a stop. The UK is the only nation currently planning to use the manoeuver, which will allow jets to land on board the carrier with heavier loads, meaning they won’t need to jettison expensive fuel and weapons before landing.

More F-35 posts on this blog, including first UK airshow appearance, RIAT 2016

https://falkeeinsgreatplanes.blogspot.com/2016/07/lockheed-martin-f-35s-at-fairford-for.html

Thunder City EE Lightning T.5 crash, November 2009

Having posted recently about the terrible loss rates of the Starfighter, it is perhaps worth mentioning that they were apparently no worse than those of the EE Lightning. Of course more Starfighters crashed than Lightnings were actually built, but approaching a third of all RAF Lightnings did crash (nearly 90 machines). The problem is that no matter how professional any maintenance crew is, aircraft like the Lightning are/were inherently more subject to failures compared to other types because of their design. A look at the typical loss rates of the Lightnings or most other supersonic fighters designed in the '50s will show that even during their service lives, while being maintained by trained and experienced personnel with immediate access to spare parts and expense not an issue, failures did occur in relatively large numbers...

 Back in 2009 one of three then airworthy EE Lightnings operated by Thunder City crashed at an airshow in South Africa killing experienced test pilot Dave Stock. I've spent the day reading the 136-page accident report which is quite horrific..

http://www.caa.co.za/resource%20center/accidents%20&%20incid/reports/2009/8706.pdf

Of course we've had the Hunter Shoreham crash since then but this report rams or rammed home the potential dangers of operating such complex kit without the support infrastructure they had whilst in service with the military. Even in the 1960s fuel leaks were commonplace and a major potential fire hazard due to the inherent design of the machine. Engine bay fires frequently resulted in loss of flight controls, commonly heat failure of the v-jack controlling the elevator. Fires and Lightnings do not mix and SOP was to eject. Only in the Thunder City crash the ejection seat was long over-due maintenance and did not function.

 Quoting from 'Lightning Boys';
"...Other exceptional modifications developed for the Lightning involved wrapping all hydraulic connections with fire proof tape, so that any spray leaks there (highly inflammable) would be turned into drip leaks (far less so). Procedures too evolved; eventually all hydraulic unions in hot areas were x-rayed after being squeezed into exactly the right shape. And, by 1982, no maintenance due point would be extended (a trivial practice on most aircraft types, within reason) without an internal inspection of engine compartments while the aircraft was restrained and run in double re-heat on the de-tuner. (The de-tuner was so-called because to call it a "silencer" would probably have infringed the Trade Descriptions Act.). Many times these inspections ended any thoughts of an extension of flying hours and the aircraft was brought smartly into the hangar for some urgent rectification.

In all, in engineering terms, operating the Lightning was a challenge. Working on it was difficult, and what was done had to be perfect because the aircraft could be very unforgiving..."

Graham Perry, former senior engineering officer 11 Sqn and later commander of the engineering wing at Binbrook

extract from  "Tribute to a Legend from the Overberg" by James Clash

" ..I noticed an article about the air show in the Cape Town Times. A fighter jet developed problems with its hydraulics, and the pilot managed to steer away from the crowd and dump fuel. Then, after three attempts he said, “Ejection seat failure” and crashed in a fireball.

The pilot was Dave Stock and the aircraft was the Lightning I had flown in.

Writing this now, my thoughts shift from me to Stock and back. I can’t help wondering: Had the hydraulics failed a day earlier, on our flight (the last on which Stock took a commercial passenger), would I be alive?

I believe Stock thought he would be fine on his air-show flight, until the end. His aircraft had flown for a half-century without incident and was well-maintained at Thunder City. He methodically attacked the problem by using his air skills — first, to point the plane away from 40,000 spectators, and second, to dump fuel to reduce the size of a crash explosion. Finally, he planned to eject at the last minute. From his stated confidence in the equipment, he had no idea he was going to die until the seat failed....."

  continued here