Bob Beaumont was in A Flight, he joined 263 in June 1943 and left in May 1944. The picture was taken in the summer of 1943 at the Knighton Wood dispersal pens at Warmwell. Bob crashed at Warmwell on 17th August 1943 in P7096, so this is a good bet for the serial of the aircraft in the picture. (Source: ‘263 and 137 Squadrons, The Whirlwind Years’ by Robert Bowater.)

If he was in A Flight why would be flying “W” as his normal aircraft… Also P7096 (AFAIK) was unnamed

Does anyone have access to

Whirlwind: Westland’s Enigmatic Fighter Paperback by Niall Corduroy ?

Final point if JUST BELLOWS then P7094 which had two periods of service with 263 Sqn (second period was HE-T) first period unknown (but went to repair at Westland in between)

a number of Whirlwinds were Named “Bellows, Bellows Argentina and Bellows Uruguay”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_of_the_Bellows

These were :

P7094: Bellows
P7055: Bellows Argentina No. 1
P7116: Bellows Argentina No. 2
P7117: Bellows Argentina No. 3
P7118: Bellows Argentina No. 4
P7119: Bellows Argentina No. 5
P7120: Bellows Argentina No. 6
P7121: Bellows Argentina No. 7
P7122: Bellows Uruguay

I have a report that the name was sometimes shortened so just “Bellows 4”

It looks likes the photo is either one of these Whirlwinds with 263 Sqn but has the name altered to “Bellons” either as a joke or painted on another non Bellows aircraft

As Wiki says “263 Squadron took delivery of 20 Westland Whirlwind fighters and the squadron adopted the nickname “Fellowship of the Bellows”.”

Then they may have decided to paint all or some of there Whirlwinds with Bellows/Bellons type names

Not all named Bellows aircraft served with 263 Sqn and also those 263 Sqn aircraft were not HE-W so If I was to hazard a guess I would say either
P7055 or P7120

Some of the others served with 263 Sqn but have known HE codes
P7094 HE-T, P7116 HE-F and HE-J, P7117 HE-E – This does not preclude them from being re-coded

Some Bellows aircraft only served with 137 Sqn so have been excluded from analysis

However, if we could date when F/Sgt. Bob Beaumont was with Sqn then maybe narrow down further and if he served with B Flight

Kelly can you provide a link thanks paul

I mention 22 FTS in Uk as the wiki list of codes has FCM at 22 FTS and FCT at empire central flying school

WW1 example I was thinking of

http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/18494/the-gallant-pigeon-that-saved-six-ww1-airmen-lost-in-the-north-sea/

Seriously not WW2 but in WW1 a crew of a flying boat in a dingy were rescued when there pigeon got back to base the pigeon died on landing and iIRC got a medal