Need help: old Flypast issue

Apparently the wings flapped in flight too!

Ergh.

What an awesomely ugly beast. It seems like a huge step backwards in bomber design. Does the name suggest that perhaps the shape was inspired by Windsor Castle? It’s bulky enough.

It seems that it has a tittle bit of everything mixed in, hints of Stirling, Wellington, Sunderland, Lancaster, York – even the nose looks like a badly scaled up Mosquito nose secton. But they don’t really go well together.

The first photo of it in flight gives an impression that it could be a flying boat. I wonder how well it would have ditched at sea.

Was the designer Barnes Wallis? Perhaps it was this design that had put the war office off when he was trying to get the bouncing bomb approved?

…that’s why the B-29 has been nicknamed “Dreamboat” – what would the Windsor deserve then ? Barge ?

Martin / Swiss Mustangs

Good god! I’d read briefly about the design, but I had no idea they’d even built one, let alone flown three!

So, looking at the spec, it was intended to fulfil much the same role as the B29 did for the Americans, yet to look at them, it’s no contest. The B29 looks the part; a streamlined efficient design, wheras the Windsor just sits there and oozes good old British eccentricity. And we wonder why our aircraft industry went down the tubes… :rolleyes:

Hi

from 1000aircraftphotos:

“There were at least 2 prototypes: DW506 as Type 447 with Merlin 65, DW512 as Type 457 with Merlin 82. A source states that a 3rd prototype had flown before the type was cancelled.”

Cheers
Martin / Swiss Mustangs

Rex Pierson’s design for Spec. B.5/41, calling for a 4-engine high altitude bomber with pressure cabin. This Vickers Type 433 was based on the Warwick and 2 prototypes were ordered, but the Spec. was changed to B.3/42 which eliminated the pressure cabin, so the revised design became the Type 447. The 1st prototype, DW506, made its maiden flight at Farnborough on 23 October 1943 piloted by “Mutt” Summers. The 2nd prototype was DW512 and first flew from Wisley on 15 February 1944. A 3rd aircraft, the Type 461 serial NK136 flew on 11 July 1944. The programme was cancelled before any more could fly, at the end of WWII.
RR Merlins, span 117 ft 2 in., length 76 ft 10 in., height 23 ft.
Max. speed 317 mph at 23 000 ft, ceiling 27 250 ft, range 2 890 miles with 8 000 lb bomb load.
4 x 20 mm cannon in pairs in remotely-controlled barbettes in the rear of the outboard engine nacelles.
No production.

What an unlikely looking aircraft – anyone care to put up a few specs and/or brief history for those of us who know nothing about it?

and finally . . .

Another view from the Putnam book

Windsor photo

Here is one of the photos, perhaps this resolution is good enough for you?

Hi fab1o270,
I have now scanned the Putnam pages, to be legible the files are respectively 1 and 2 Mb, too big to send as private mail, so please send me your E-mail address via private mail so I can send them to you. If you want the photos scanned separately I can do that too and E-mail them also.

Hi fab1o270,
I have now scanned the Putnam pages, to be legible the files are respectively 1 and 2 Mb, too big to send as private mail, so please send me your E-mail address via private mail so I can send them to you. If you want the photos scanned separately I can do that too and E-mail them also.

Fabio

There is a Windsor article in the May 85 issue.

If you email me your address – [email]bridgmanchris@hotmail.co.uk[/email] – I’ll photocopy it and send it to you (I’ve not got a scanner)

Chris

Hi, I have some photocopies of the relevant chapter in the Vickers Putnam book. I don’t know whether they are the same, however surely not very clear!
Could be useful if it’s not too much fuss for you.
Thanks
Fabio

Hi!
I assume you already have a copy of “The British Bomber since 1914” by Francis K Mason, published by Putnam, which has 2 pages of text and photos on the Windsor? If not, I could scan and send them to you.