Can anyone please help with a bit of technical information? How long would it take a Wellington Mk1c bomber to fly back to RAF Lindholme after dropping its bomb load over Hamburg. And how long would it take the same bomber to do the same flight with one engine out. This is just for the purpose of argument so please just assume a direct flight with no harassment from fighters. Thank you
Here's a story about a Wellington making it back from Nuremberg on one engine in 5 hours at 100 MPH. BBC - WW2 People's War - Return from Nuremberg on One Engine
FTR, AP 1578C pilot's notes state - albeit for a later marque but with essentially the same airframe with a similar/identical stalling speed - "EMERGENCIES 63. Engine failure in flight" ... "If necessary to maintain height, speed may be reduced to 120 m.p.h. (105 knots) I.A.S." (where IAS = Indicated Air Speed) So that's your slowest on one engine but the effective ground speed you presumably want will then depend on prevailing head/tail wind conditions so I suggest you look up the relevant weather report and subtract/add the relevant angular flight path vector accordingly. For example, it seems the Wimpy cited above was effectively battling a typical westerly 20 mph headwind to reduce its minimum advisory 120 mph airspeed to a geographical 100 mph. An easterly 20 mph tailwind, on the other hand, would have bumped that up to at least 140 mph. Steve
There are so many variables ie. was the prop on the dead engine feathered or spinning? What was the fuel mixture? How was the engine damaged etc? It's a great question and no doubt the back story will tell us more. Regards, Dave
Thank you all for your responses. The purpose of this is just as a yardstick. It does not represent any individual aircraft and my intention was to try to work out times (min and max) that it would take for an undamaged and a damaged aircraft to make that journey. This would be for an undamaged aircraft flying normally or an aircraft flying on one engine due to the other having been taken out by gunfire or flak. Since RAF Lindholme switched off its radar as a measure against intruders when planes were no longer expected to return, I was hoping to establish a sort of time scale. It seems now that this was an impractical idea due to the many variables. But thank you all for trying to help
Hamburg is about 450 miles from Lindholme as the crow flies so on homeward bound at cruising speed,the duration of flight would be about 3 hours.Nuremberg surprisingly is just short of 600 miles while Berlin is about 600 miles.....again as the crow flies and diversion planned routes are discounted. As regards operation on one engine,as said so many variables but the main consideration would be to keep the aircraft flying within its operational envelope,the main point being to keep the IAS above the stall speed and to maintain an optimum height as appropriate to the remaining engine condition and performance.Striving to maintain a given height, say for safety considerations may put an increase in stress on the engine at the higher levels of power output so a compromise would be effected between a safe height against Ack Ack and interception on one hand and the labouring of an engine on the other.Engine parameters such as coolant temperature and oil pressure and oil temperature would be under the utmost vigilance during the operation on one engine. Interesting point about the Lindholme radar being related as switched off ....any idea of the type? I am thinking about BABS/Rebecca which may have not been available on the early BC Wellington stations.
This is the extreme - but gives you a flavour of the variables of a damaged Wellington returning from Frankfurt - may be a bit too damaged. The crew went out with the aim to be attacked by nightfighters - to identify the freq of their AI radar! Posted this a few years ago on BBC Peoples War BBC - WW2 People's War - Well Done, No 1474 Flight: Investigation Flight Over Frankfurt Ross
P/O Jordan was well known for this epic exercise with No 1474 (Wireless Investigation) Flight...his commitment to his task while the Wellington was acting as bait for the Luftwaffe night fighters earned him an immediate DSO,Bigoray,was awarded the DFM and Paulton,the DFC. It appears that after the Luftwaffe were reluctant to be drawn into isolated aircraft entering German airspace so a decision was made for No 1474 Flight to accompany a bombing op to fish further. Flights such as this were made over German occupied western Europe Harold Jordan died many years ago....I have his DT obituary lodged in one of my books somewhere. As RV Jones put it. Jordan's findings filled the gap in our understandings of the Luftwaffe air defence system. TRE had suspected that 490 MHz was being used for the Lichtenstein German AI radar transmissions.....Jordan's fishing confirmed it. Typo on unit identification corrected
Thanks Harry, Because of the huge number of variables I can see that my original idea was just not practicable. But to answer your question, in amongst all the paperwork that I read on aircraft failing to return to Lindholme, there was more than one reference to the radar being switched off when there were no aircraft expected and only switched back on for a few minutes at irregular intervals so that intruders could not home in on the signal. I have no idea what type of radar they had at Lindholme
Referring to the above, one of the incidents I had in mind when I asked this question was indeed about a damaged bomber on the way back from Hamburg to Lindholme. As I said, no specific aircraft was intended and the question was intended only as a yardstick for the capabilities of a damaged bomber but your answers generally have convinced me that a safe return was possible I hope so - eventually - one of the stories I wanted to apply this information to, was a bomber that disappeared and was presumed shot down over the sea. Later an unidentified body was found and buried without being identified as there were no dog tags. I wondered whether this could be one particular crewman who actually fitted the description. For this to be possible, I hoped to use this yardstick to test whether the plane could have made it back. The plane could have easily disappeared in the peat bog which was very deep and only semi-solid - several other planes were lost in the same bog but they were subsequently recovered. There was another instance where the plane was allegedly in the sea off the Friesian Islands but most of the bodies were found between England and France. I had hoped to apply it to several other losses. There were several other losses I had hoped to use the information with, but it is just not practicable. Ah well, back to the drawing board!
