Vickers Wellesley
L2639
(c/n
The Wellesley was the first aircraft to be
constructed entirely on the geodetic principle developed
by B.N.
Wallis. Vickers chief designer Rex Pierson co-operated with the
scientist in coming up
with the winner of the Air Ministry Spec G4/31 for a general purpose
torpedo bomber. Having
said that, I always thought that the Wellesey was a particularly ugly
design. Nevertheless some
176 were
produced for the RAF of which 100 or so were still operational at the
outbreak of
WW
II, serving mainly in the Middle East against Italian
forces. The three pictured above were
part of the RAF Long-Range Development Flight, two of which made
history in 1938 when they
established a
long distance record with a non-stop flight from Ismailia, Egypt to
Darwin Australia,
a
distance of 7,158 miles This world absolute distance record
held until 1945.