The Vickers Warwick; Life Saver

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In my previous video on the Bristol Buckingham I mentioned that even before the start of World War II the British had recognized that the aircraft they had in service were going to be outdated in short order nothing special about that it was and pretty much still is

Recognized that as soon as you prototype a new aircraft you need to start thinking about upgrades and its future replacement this was especially true in the 1930 when aircraft and power plant development was hairing along at a Breakneck speed in fact things move so fast that even the most optimistic

Projections of the aircraft manufacturers and procurement agencies were left trailing behind reality and because cuttingedge technological advances often hit significant snags well you get plenty of failures along the way this in many ways is typified by today’s aircraft the Vicor Warick but despite the issues it faced it actually

Went on to play some very important roles though now it is practically forgotten the origins of the wari essentially start with a British Air Ministry specification issued all the way back in 1932 this requested a new twin engine bomber that would have to carry a substantial bomb load further and faster

Than anything else flying the giant vica’s concern Rose to the challenge and with the combined Genius of their lead aircraft designer Rex Pearson and chief structural designer Barnes Wallace they created what would become the Wellington an aircraft that proved a stalwart throughout the second world war and which was the most produced British

Bomber of the conflict but even before the Wellington first flew the air Ministry was seeing the rapid pace of aeronautic development especially in engine design and decided that they needed to jump the gun to stay ahead of the opposition position policy was now to build a substantial bomber Force as

Quickly as possible for strategic use and so in 1935 the ministry went to Vicor and said can we have a bigger version of this please now this would seem eminently logical as essentially an expanded Wellington the war shared several components with its smaller sibling and the design work on both was

Able to run in parallel additionally when the wari went into production the vica’s workers would be intimately familiar with the building of its complex geodetic structure from working on the Wellington and so this would help transition the production lines to the new and more formidable heavy bomber

Indeed the creation of the war should be comparatively straightforward it was thought all that was needed was a reliable and Powerful engine to Hoist the new heavy bomber and its bomb load into the sky and the British had just a thing the new Rolls-Royce vulture regular viewers of the channel will

Likely recognize that name because several of the Forgotten aircraft I have featured owe their demise to the failure of that particular engine but credit where credit is due the British authorities and Vickers recognized that they were putting all of their eggs in one basket with the vulture which was

Already expected to be heavily committed to the new Arro Manchester bomber so a second prototype was ordered in 1937 with an alternative power plant the napia saber again regular viewers of Forgotten aircraft will recognize that name as well if not check out my video on the Martin Baker Mark III fighter

Because the saber which would ultimately develop into a reasonably successful engine also experienced a very troubl development cycle and this soon became apparent and led to another change this time to the second prototype wari so that it would instead be equipped with the Bristol Centaurus a new and Powerful

British radial that would provide the um the war needed if the vulture failed to deliver as it was the third time also wasn’t the charm certainly initially because The Centaurus would have its own share of issues in development by now it was 1939 and the supposedly simple

Expansion of the Wellington that was the Warick was in serious trouble it was much heavier than had been projected and basically didn’t really have an engine serious thought was given to canceling the aircraft But ultimately the British at the time didn’t have a new heavy bomber design available with the big

Four engine Heavies like the Lancaster and Halifax still being at the proposal and preliminary idea stages while the Manchester had serious issues plus the British were still keen on the idea of using twin engine bombers because they would represent a considerable saving in production time and costs so the Warick

Was reproved and in August 1939 the vulture engine prototype flew for the first time and in the best tradition of the vulture this lasted just a few minutes before an engine fult made it necessary to put the aircraft down in short order once repaired and flights resumed it became apparent that with the

Vulture the war just wasn’t any good thought was given to developing a 4 engine variant but this was quickly shelved and attention switched to the second prototype with its Centaurus engines in April 1940 this first flew and showed to have much better handling and performance the problem was as said

That the Taurus wasn’t in production and it would be in fact several years before quantities for war production would be available then somewhat ironically the fall of France provided the wari with its salvation the French had ordered large numbers of combat aircraft from the United States which were swiftly

Transferred to the British after France’s capitulation as well as large numbers of supplementary engines and amongst these were orders for the new pratton Whitney double wasp radial these weren’t as powerful as The Centaurus but they were available and could be used on the wari given it an expected performance at least comparable

To the then mainstate wellingtons but with greater payloads so in January 1941 an order was placed for 250 wari bombers composed of 150 Mark 1s equipped with 1,850 horsepower double wasps and 100 Mark 2s with 2,500 horsepower centaures but but again things were slow somewhat understandably the USA had their own

Increasing requirement for double wasps and so the first mark one wouldn’t get delivered until May 1942 this was far too late and the RF were already using four engine heavy bombers on missions aircraft that had far better capabilities than the Warick the order for the bomber Wars was cut

With only 16 of the aircraft built and both the RAF and Vickers were now faced with an aircraft on the production line that was no longer needed ironically this would lead to the wari being both extremely useful and being built in several configurations though despite this it is Thoroughly unappreciated by

History the first step was to quickly convert 13 of the mark 1’s into C mark1 transports for use by the boac airline these had their gun turrets removed and fed over and flew routs across the Middle East where the war long range was a definite asset indeed despite some

Reliability issues with the double wasps the warik proved successful enough as a longrange transport that another 100 would be built for use by the RAF as longrange cargo and passenger planes these the war C Mark 3s were fitted with a cargo paner under the fuselage and could carry

3,44 kg of cargo or 24 men in their equipment or else up to 10 Personnel in a VIP configuration but though these were useful enough they were were just a fraction of the service the Warick would provide the remaining Mark 1s which actually would end up having their

Numbers ordered boosted would serve as specially converted airca rescue aircraft this particular service had been largely ignored before and in the early years of the war with the rescue of air Crews down in the waters around the UK initially being the responsibility of high-speed launches operated by the RAF this was rapidly

Found to be utterly inadequate and with aircraft needs for other roles so desperate the initial air rescue teams got settled with things like Bolton Poole defiant turret Fighters that were bodged up with inflatable air droppable dingies under their wings these were perhaps marginally more successful in

This role than they had been as Fighters which really isn’t saying much and the RAF employed a range of aircraft in the job before in 1943 deciding that the Warick was just about ideal it’s long range and large carrying capacity men that they could carry several sets of life-saving gear

Composed of either a number of lindome gear sets an entire airdrop called dingy or else a mix of both the lindome gear was a rather ingenious setup that was made up of five canisters joined together with a rope which composed of a self-inflating dingy in the center container and the others holding food

Dry clothing and survival gear the rescue aircraft would drop the gear up wind of the ditched crew which would then if it worked out correctly drift close enough for them to grab a rope pull the El into the dingy drag in the emergency supplies and await rescue and

I say was but modern versions of this equipment are still in service today the other item that many War asrs carried was a foxy Airborne self-writing Lifeboat these were wooden boats that house two engines Mast sails radio survival rations and dry suits as well as an instruction manual on how to sail

And in the later versions could carry 10 men dropped from a war at 700 ft the fox boat would drift down on six parachutes and when it hit the water would shoot out lifelines on rockets for the downed crew to grab onto and board the boat to

Await rescue or else even make their own way back to shore all told 275 of the war ASR Mark 1s were built which were followed by another order for Warick Mark 6s that featured an improved double wasp engine and of which 94 were built between them the ASR War equipped 14 RAF

Rescue squadrons and played a substantial part in the rescue of more than 13,000 persons plucked from the seas around the UK during the war but the story is not quite finished there remember how I said that the Hope had been to fit the Warick with Bristol Centaurus engines well once they became

Available in numbers that is just what happened and while the double wasp equipped engines were suitable for non-combat roles with The Centaurus performance went up enough for the war to be thought suitable for combat once again the gr Mark I was intended for reconnaissance anti-submarine work and torpedo attack being equipped with a

Surface search radar and capable of carrying either 2 21in or 3 18in aerial Torpedoes or else bombs or mines up to a rather impressive maximum of £1,250 though I’m pretty sure that they never carried that full load operationally however the extra horsepower caused stability issues with the aircraft and remedial design and

Construction work had to be carried out before they could get into service fully the 188 gr Mark I’s builts were followed by another 210 gr Mark 5ivs mainly for patrol and anti-submarine work which reduced the payload but added a leight under the aircraft for illumination most of these aircraft would ultimately go

Into storage’s Surplus 2 requirement as the war in Europe Drew down and the fabric skin of the war wasn’t considered suitable for their deployment to the Pacific but a number did serve with Coastal command through 1944 and 45 patrolling European waters on Long boring anti-submarine missions that may

Have not had much glamour or often proven very exciting but which were important in the context of the bigger strategic picture and that pretty much sums up the career of the Warick it wasn’t flash or glamorous it didn’t level cities or fight epic battles in the sky over enemy territory it bimble

Around doing its job normally one that doesn’t get a lot of ink spilled over it but which was critically important and here at military matters we love planes like that because while much of History has forgotten the Warick for any air crew bobbing for lonely in the ocean

Praying for rescue the war was the most significant and beautiful aircraft they would ever SE