Vickers Wellesley

The Vickers Wellesley was a monoplane medium bomber designed and produced by Vickers-Armstrongs at Brooklands near Weybridge in the 1930s. It was one of two aircraft named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, the other being the Wellington. It was developed in response to Specification G.4/31. The biplane Type 253 was an early form of the design, sharing its geodesic airframe, but Vickers also built a private venture monoplane, the Type 246, which flew from Brooklands on 19 June 1935 and had superior performance, so the order was switched to it. The Royal Air Force ultimately ordered 176 aircraft. It was powered by a Bristol Pegasus XX radial. In November 1938 three Wellesleys flew non-stop for two days from Ismailia in Egypt to Darwin in Australia, 7,162 miles, setting a world distance record. Six Bomber Command squadrons operated the type at its peak, but it was obsolete by the start of the Second World War.