How about looping a Stirling?

A properly executed barrel roll is a 1g (or close to) manouevre. Should be within the capabilities of most aircraft when lightly loaded.

The problem is when it goes wrong and falls out of the top of a sloppily executed roll.

There lies a world of misery and pain. Very unlikely to be able to get it back.

Moggy

This is an excerpt from “FOREVER STRONG: The story of 75 Squadron RNZAF, 1916-1990” by Norman L. R Franks (which I’ve discovered is apparently a very valuable book).

Pilot Des Horgan remembers a trip to Hannover on the night of Sep 27/28 1943. He was flying a Stirling (EF148).

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“My first combat with this particular type of night fighter – JU88 – is something which I shall never forget. The target was Hannover. We had no problems on the outward journey and approached the target at the appointed time. The welcome can of orange juice had been downed and my toilet tin had been handed up and used for the usual nervous de-watering ritual. A couple of minutes to go and as usual, right on time to the very second, the target indicators started to fall.

We were flying at around 13,000 feet and as we prepared to run over the target, the reception from the local defence system started, and true to form put on the usual good show. Lots of flak and plenty of searchlights, the climax to our night’s entertainment was to come sooner than expected.

With our bomb doors open, my bomb aimer was giving me a true heading to run in onto the target indicators. Approximately two seconds before bombs away, the rear gunner informed me that a night fighter was approaching from below and dead astern. Our normal fighter affiliation intercom patter followed and we knew that as soon as he saw our bombs go, he would come forward and give us a fatal burst of cannon before we could even close the bomb doors. This is not exactly what happened.

When the rear gunner informed me that the night fighter had disappeared from sight under his turret, I sat back on the stick and the rear gunner had a sitting shot at the JU88, directly below, and he made no mistake. Unfortunately for me, in the heat of the moment I miscalculated a manoeuvre which I had practised on numerous occasions over England, and instead of slipping away to port or starboard as intended, my aircraft came over on to its back and literally fell out of the sky.

As I mentioned before, I will never forget what happened in the next couple of minutes. What actually happened when 20 tones of aircraft goes into a vertical dive, I know! I also know that I eventually regained control approximately 200 feet over Hannover, low enough fore me to see three people standing on a street corner. We made it back to base and on inspection in the morning, R-Roger was hopeless write-off, never to be flown again. Everything in the aircraft that was breakable was broken – a truly remarkable aircraft to fly reasonably well after such a hammering and to get us home in such a devastated condition.

Some weeks later, my wireless operator, over a drink in the Mess, asked me what street I had been looking for that night over Hannover”

So that’s a great story isn’t it? A little over imagined here and there … and inaccurate in at least one respect, EF148 did fly again after repairs but was lost in November over Berlin. All that said, it appears that Des pulled the aircraft more-or-less straight up and then dropped it over backwards. Fell into a loop?