Vickers Hull

[lenny100]

back story for my upcomeing build

The Vickers Hull was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) by Vickers-Armstrongs. It took its service name from the town and port of Hull in northeast England.
Based in part upon the Wellington Bomber, and was involved in countering the threat posed by German U-boats in coastal waters around the UK and in the mediatrian. The Hull remained in service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) until 1967.
Serval Hulls were converted for civil use, known as the Harrogate, continued in airline operation until 1974. A single airworthy example remains on display in Florida and there are two on display in the UK both held by the RAF museum and are on display at their two sites.
The only design the two Vickers superstar designers R. J. Mitchell, and Barnes Neville Wallis worked on together, as a tender to Air Ministry R.24/31 Specification for a coastal reconnaissance flying boat for the RAF. A contract was placed in 1933 for a prototype powered by two 820 hp (611 kW) Bristol P
The Hull used a geodesic construction method, which had been devised by Barnes Wallis inspired by his work on airships, and had previously been used to build the single-engine Wellesley light bomber and his Wellington Bomber. The fuselage was built up from 1650 elements, consisting of aluminium alloy (duralumin) W-beams that were formed into a large framework. Wooden battens were screwed onto the aluminium, and these were covered with Irish linen, which, once treated with many layers of dope, formed the outer upper skin of the aircraft, the lower hull used thin sheets of sheet metal.
The metal lattice gave the structure tremendous strength, because any one of the stringers could support some of the weight from even the opposite side of the aircraft. Blowing out one side's beams would still leave the aircraft as a whole intact; as a result, battle damaged Hulls with huge areas of framework missing continued to return home when other types would not have survived; the dramatic effect was enhanced by the doped fabric skin burning off, leaving the naked frames exposed.
Another notable feature of this aircraft was the tricycle undercarriage, which allowed fully amphibious operations, which the crews loved especially when returning with battle damage to the water hull.
.Following the initial flight-test programme, the prototype on 24 October 1934 was delivered to the RAF for operational testing. On 29 August 1935, an initial order was placed for 20 aircraft to the Air Ministry Specification 17/35.
The production version was fitted with two Bristol Pegasus Mark XVIII radial engines at 1050hp each and first flew in December 1936, entering service operations on 16 April 1937; the last of  250 UK built Hulls was delivered 3 April 1945. A total of 400 Stranraers were built in Canada by Canadian Vickers Limited; Super marine and Canadian Vickers being subsidiaries of Vickers-Armstrongs.
The Hull were the most extensively used costal ASW aircraft in both the Atlantic and meditraian of the Second World War, and were also used in the Indian Ocean, flying from the Seychelles and from Ceylon. Their duties included escorting convoys to Murmansk. By 1943, U-boats were well-armed with anti-aircraft guns and two Victoria Crosses were won by Hull pilots pressing home their attacks on U-boats in the face of heavy fire: John Cruickshank of the RAF, in 1944, against the U-347 and in the same year Flight Lt. David Hornell of the RCAF (posthumously) against the U-1225. The aircraft destroyed 40 U-boats in all, but they suffered  losses of their own, with over 150 aircraft listed as missing or destroyed in all theaters.
An Australian aircraft made the first trans-Pacific flight across the South Pacific between Australia and Chile in 1946, making numerous stops at islands along the way for refuelling, meals, and overnight sleep of its crew.
The Brazilian Air Force flew Hulls in naval air patrol missions against German submarines starting in 1943. The flying boats also carried out air mail deliveries. In 1948, a transport squadron was formed and equipped with the aircraft converted to the role of amphibious transports. The 1st Air Transport Squadron (ETA-1) was based in the port city of Belem and flew Hulls and C-47s in well-maintained condition until 1982, because were convenient for supplying military detachments scattered among the Amazon waterways. They reached places that were otherwise accessible only by long-range transport helicopters. The ETA-1 insignia was a winged turtle with the motto "Though slowly, I always get there". Today, the last Brazilian Hull (a former RCAF one) is displayed at the Airspace Museum (MUSAL) in Rio de Janeiro.
Paul Mantz converted a small number of surplus Hulls to flying yachts at his Orange County California hangar in the late 1940s and early 1950s, were platforms werefolded out and deployed from the aircraft for use in open ocean fishing in the Pacific Ocean.
General characteristics
    Crew: six
    Length: 64 ft 7 in (19.69 m)
    Wingspan: 86 ft 2 in (26.27 m)
    Height: 17 ft 5 in (5.31 m)
    Wing area: 840 ft² (78.1 m²)
    Empty weight: 18,556 lb (8,435 kg)
    Max takeoff weight: 28,500 lb (12,955 kg)
    Powerplant: 2 × Bristol Pegasus Mark XVIII radial engines, 1,050 hp (783 kW) each

Performance
    Maximum speed: 235 mph (378 km/h) at 15,500 ft (4,730 m)
    Range: 2,550 mi (2,217 nmi, 4,106 km)
    Service ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,490 m)
    Rate of climb: 1,120 ft/min (5.7 m/s)
    Wing loading: 34 lb/ft² (168 kg/m²)
    Power/mass: 0.08 hp/lb (0.13 kW/kg)

Armament
        Guns: 6-8× .303 Browning machine guns:
        2× in nose turret
        4× in tail turret
        2× in waist positions
    Bombs: 4,500 lb (2,041 kg) bombs

[McColm]

Wow!!
I'm going to write back stories for all my projects.

[Rheged]

Wow!!
I'm going to write back stories for all my projects.

If the model is as good as the back-story, this should be an excellent  finished result!

[rickshaw]

This thread needs pictures!

[lenny100]

the photo will be on the way once i get the camera to work again something wrong with the rechargeable battery

[JayBee]

the photo will be on the way once i get the camera to work again something wrong with the rechargeable battery

Try re-charging the battery 

[Sticky Fingers]

the photo will be on the way once i get the camera to work again something wrong with the rechargeable battery

Try re-charging the battery 

Try putting the re-charged battery back into the camera... 

[lenny100]

ok got camera working again
started painting as a craft used by denmark in the 1970s in the greenland area, on of the last operational military aircraft of its type.

[JayBee]

WOW! 

Here's to rechargable batteries.


Jim

[Mossie]

Nice looking project Lenny!   And I think this is the first time Hull has ever been mentioned on this forume without someone taking the p***!

[lenny100]

Nice looking project Lenny!   And I think this is the first time Hull has ever been mentioned on this forume without someone taking the p***!

why did you think i chose the name, its a good in joke for all  those on here and it keeps with the pratice of naming flying boat after seaside towns, (sunderland, Felixstow etc.)