Vickers Wellington

[pyro-manic]

I've searched around, and I can't find much in the way of Wimpey whiffs, so here's the official topic. There are the obvious engine changes, the high-altitude pressurised one, etc, but has anyone come up with anything more radical to do to the Welly?

[The Rat]

Some of the real incarnations looked like whiffs, but there has to be some more in there.

First one to say 'put a hull on it Ratty' gets a swat! 

[kitbasher]

turboprops?
4 engines?
swept wings?


a hull, perhaps? 

[Weaver]

How about a testbed aircraft with a jet engine in a pod or in the tail (as was done with Lancasters)?

OR, a Guided Weapon Wimpy, with the UK equivalent of Hs-293/Fritz-X weapons and some funny aerials to guide them?

OR a night bomber escort: two Hercules/Centaurus for more speed, extra fuel in the bomb bay, a battery of 20mm in a solid nose, and comms/EW intercept gear to home in on night-fighters.....

OR, hull be damned, how about a floatplane version? 

[JayBee]

How about a retractable planing hull like the Blackburn B-20?

[PR19_Kit]

How about a retractable planing hull like the Blackburn B-20?

And with two Vultures too. Then it would BE a B20! 

How I wish someone would kit a B20........ <sigh>

[GTX]

Anti-shipping with a whopping big gun in the nose/belly - say 17pdr or bigger!

Regards,

Greg

[DaFROG]

one word: Stealth

Does not the wellington have the geodesic fuselage?
Was not this fabric covered?
Why not then cover it with the clear stuffs as tried by ze germans in WW1 (there was a recetn thread which I can't find)?
Not sure the psychological effects of flying over enemy territors in a transperant plane would be all that good but don't let that stop you

The easiest way to do this would require much custom photo etch and cursing I suspect but would probable garner mad respect

As an engineer i feel i should point out that teh geodesic structure may cause problems for a flying boat version however as the design was a direct descendant of teh R100 airship structure would it not be an idea to fill the fuselage with a lifting gas?
God knows what such a craft would be used for, perhaps it could reach extreemly high altitudes

[Weaver]

one word: Stealth

Does not the wellington have the geodesic fuselage?
Was not this fabric covered?
Why not then cover it with the clear stuffs as tried by ze germans in WW1 (there was a recetn thread which I can't find)?
Not sure the psychological effects of flying over enemy territors in a transperant plane would be all that good but don't let that stop you

The easiest way to do this would require much custom photo etch and cursing I suspect but would probable garner mad respect

As an engineer i feel i should point out that teh geodesic structure may cause problems for a flying boat version however as the design was a direct descendant of teh R100 airship structure would it not be an idea to fill the fuselage with a lifting gas?
God knows what such a craft would be used for, perhaps it could reach extreemly high altitudes

The problem with that is that if you filled the fuselage with Helium, all the crew would talk in very high squeaky voices and wouldn't be able to identify themselves to air traffic control.....


Seroius point about the geodesic structure though: tooling up for it was a bitch, it was hard to make big changes to it once it was tooled up, and this was the principle reason why the Wimpy fell by the wayside, development-wise. Once they'd got the Wellington jigs and the skills needed to use them, switching to building anything else would have taken ages and cost a packet.

[kitbasher]

Anti-shipping with a whopping big gun in the nose/belly - say 17pdr or bigger!

Not a million miles off an idea I have for a Wimpy whif.  Hope to get the kit at Hendon next weekend.   

[PR19_Kit]

[Pedant mode on]

Actually I think the Wimpy's structure was termed 'geodetic'.

I think 'geodesic' is the term they use for those hexagonal tile thingies used to make a satellite dish golfball. Quite what the linguistic difference is though I don't know.

[Pedant mode off] 

[DaFROG]

The problem with that is that if you filled the fuselage with Helium, all the crew would talk in very high squeaky voices and wouldn't be able to identify themselves to air traffic control.....

Who said anything about helium, hydrogen is a much better lifitng gas..........

and yes it is geodetic, geodesic generally refers to domes of the bizarre and futuristic variety

[Weaver]

The problem with that is that if you filled the fuselage with Helium, all the crew would talk in very high squeaky voices and wouldn't be able to identify themselves to air traffic control.....

Who said anything about helium, hydrogen is a much better lifitng gas..........

and yes it is geodetic, geodesic generally refers to domes of the bizarre and futuristic variety

You'll REALLY be wanting the exhaust flame dampers then, and good luck firing the turret guns......

[kitnut617]

What I've read about the geodetic design is that each part was about 18-20" long and that when a section was damaged you only had one or two parts to replace which could be done by semi-skilled workers.  Such major structural damage to any other design resulted in the aircraft being consigned to the repair factory where it would wait to be repaired, whereas the Wellington could be repaired by the ground crew at the airfield, usually being ready for the next op'

[The Rat]

As an engineer i feel i should point out that teh geodesic structure may cause problems for a flying boat version ...

Flying boat maybe, but some whacking great floats could do the trick. There's plenty of floatplanes out there with fabric covered fuselages a lot less durable than the Wellington had.