why the 100′ wingspan?
Originally Posted by DocStirling
That was the original spec, but they are going to have to make it 370mm to fit in the boxes
Good lord – I cannot believe I said that 1 year ago!
Very good 😀
However is this not based on one of the biggest misconceptions about British expansion era bomber designs?
It’s often said the the Stirling wingspan was reduced from the original 114ft to 99ft to fulfill a new spec (for all new bombers) calling for a span no greater than a 100ft so as to fit in the current hangars.
The most common hangar on operational RAF stations were the A Type with a 120ft clear span opening, and the new C Type which would dominate RAF bomber airfields by the late 1930s were of 150ft clear span opening.
Even the later mass built temporary T2 had an opening of 115ft.
It seems a real shame that the aircraft had its performance ‘clipped’ in this way, if Wiki is to be believed (?) the aircraft was otherwise highly regarded.
So why was the span really reduced?
I have re-read the introductory chapters in Michael Bowyer’s ‘The Stirling Story’ about the original specification that lead to the Stirling – B.12/36. The Shorts design was actually secondary to the preferred one – from Supermarine, but they were behind schedule and their two prototypes were destroyed in a bombing raid on the factory.
B12/36 stipulated a maximum wing span of 100 feet – apparently an arbitrary figure. It is implied that the design should be for a bomber with a short take-off run – using powerful engines (hence the restricted wing span) – as this would restrict the size of the aerodrome and runway that might otherwise cause public resentment in peacetime if it was too big!
It was political correctness gone mad:dev2::dev2:
daniel
ds
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