An application of some common sense is needed here – I fancy

I couldn’t agree more. Blenheim was a major battlefield, as was Hereford, Bolingbroke, Crecy, Battle etc. Can you see a pattern emerging?

Further, The Air Ministry seems to have been fascinated by the English Civil War- hardly surprising given that some of the staff would have come in via Sandhurst. Bolingbroke, and Hereford, plus Albemarle or their original choice of name for the Hampden, Huntly would have been familiar to them from their studies at university and/or Sandhurst. The village of Hampden would not have been. Generally, they seem to have liked a big, fat juicy historical link when naming an aircraft, The political figure of John Hampden would have provided that link in the case of the Hampden.

It is a remarkable coincidence that both Albemarle and Huntly were both major figures in the English Civil War. Did anything of historical importance ever happen at Albemarle, Huntly, or Wellington for that matter?

It seems to me that the Air Ministry had guidelines, but these could be, and were, bent from time to time in order to get a name with suitable historical significance.

The idea that bombers were named soley after inland empire towns is way too simplistic in my book.

Best wishes
Steve P

The place surely, especially with the info DaveF86 has posted. All the large RAF aircraft of the period are named after places, you can argue about Dukes, ports, harbours, counties etc for as long as you want – but they are all place names.

So where exactly is Hampden? I would agree that the Air Ministry tended to favour the names of towns of historical importance (or battles), but I dont accept that they were as tightly glued to the rule book as you imply. Isn’t it a remarkable coincidence that this bomber shares its name with a major British figure?

Similarly, the first Duke of Wellington was born Arthur Wellesely. what a lucky coincidence for Vickers. I haven’t found a British town of Wellesley on google earth yet, it must be there somewhere. ::p

Best wishes
Steve p

I’m not saying that the DC-3 was called Dakota before it entered British service, I’m just looking for evidence that it might have been.

An article in “Flight” from April, 1943 quotes an American Air Force officer as saying that the name “Dakota” is used exclusively by the RAF.

Best wishes
Steve P

I’m not sure I buy that.
What about Sunderland & Walrus?

Mmm. Perhaps I should have said land-based patrol aircraft. Flying boat names also followed a pattern eg, Sunderland, Stranraer, Scapa, London, Lerwick. All ports. Of course there were exceptions – Blackburn Iris springs to mind, but that does not invalidate the general rule.

Anson was so called by Avro before it became a CC aircraft.

And if the Air Ministry had not liked the name for whatever reason, they would have told Avro to change it.

The Shackleton was named so by Roy Chadwick out of the fact that he had designed a float plane for long range coastal exploration by Ernest Shackleton on one of his forays, not because of any official naming by the RAF/MoS.

See previous note.

Again, I would err with Hudson (and Beaufort) being named after the place.

Evidence?

best wishes
Steve P

The Lockheed Hudson was named after either Hudson Bay (part of the system) or Henry Hudson

Coastal Command patrol aircraft were generally named after maritime explorers (Anson, Beaufort, Shackleton etc), so I’d put my money on Henry Hudson.

Best wishes
Steve P

It was still there last week…

Firefly 1 throttles.