Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World War. Alongside the Vickers Wellington and the Handley Page Hampden, the Whitley was developed during the mid-1930s according to Air Ministry Specification B.3/34, which it was subsequently selected to meet. In 1937, the Whitley formally entered into RAF squadron service; it was the first of the three medium bombers to be introduced.
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
A Browning machine gun being installed in a Whitley's turret, 1940
Paratroopers inside the fuselage of a Whitley, August 1942
Whitley Mk.V production, 1941
The Vickers Wellington is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, issued in the middle of 1932, for a bomber for the Royal Air Force.
Vickers Wellington
Wellingtons under construction, showing the geodetic airframe
RNZAF Wellington Mark I aircraft with the original turrets; anticipating war, the New Zealand government loaned these aircraft and their aircrews to the RAF in August 1939
Wartime poster using a cutaway of Wellington to illustrate how scrap and salvage was recycled for use in the production of war materiel.