Victory Bomber

The British "Victory Bomber" was a Second World War design by Barnes Wallis at Vickers-Armstrongs Aircraft for a bomber that could carry a single 10-ton earthquake bomb to strategic targets in Germany.

Background

The Victory bomber was proposed by aircraft designer Barnes Wallis to carry single large bombs that could cause massive destruction to strategic infrastructure targets in Germany. His reasoning was that by selectively destroying the German capacity to make armaments their war effort would be stopped. The design for the bomb came out at around ten long tons which was beyond the capacity of any current or in design Royal Air Force (RAF) bomber. Accordingly Wallis sketched out a bomber that would have to be built for the bomb.

Wallis was an expert on geodetic construction of aircraft, previously using it in designs such as the Vickers Wellington, and naturally used it again for the Victory Bomber; Vickers were not tooled for other construction methods either. His specification was for a 50 ton bomber that could fly at high level, 45,000 feet needed to give the bomb speed in the drop, at 320 mph for 4,000 miles. It would carry a single 10-ton bomb. Defensive armament was minimal; speed and height would be its chief defence with one 4-gun turret in the tail position for any fighter aircraft that did attempt to reach it. The bomber would benefit by climbing to altitude while over Britain where fighter defences could protect it. The crew compartment was pressurized.

The limitation of the purpose of the aircraft to a single bomb did not endear it to the Air Ministry who required more flexibility of their aircraft and what little support they gave it was dropped in 1942. The earthquake bomb idea continued, initially as the smaller 12,000 lb Tallboy bomb, and then the larger 22,000 lb Grand Slam bomb, the carrying aircraft being the Avro Lancaster whose performance improved during the war to the point where it could manage such a load.

There was further design work on large high flying bombers by the British during the war including 75 and 100 ton designs but these did not progress either.

pecifications (as planned)

aircraft specifications

plane or copter?=plane
jet or prop?=prop

ref=

crew=
capacity=
payload main=
payload alt=
length main= 96 ft
length alt=29.3 m
span main=172 ft
span alt=52.4 m
span sweep=
height main= ft
height alt= m
area main= 2,675 ft²
area alt= 248.8 m²
airfoil=
empty weight main=
empty weight alt=
loaded weight main= 104,000 lb
loaded weight alt= 47,200 kg
useful load main=
useful load alt=
max takeoff weight main=
max takeoff weight alt=
more general=

engine (prop)=Rolls Royce Merlin or Bristol Hercules
type of prop= superchargered piston engine
number of props=6
power main=
power alt=
power original=

max speed main= 352 mph
max speed alt= 566 km/h
max speed more=at 32,000 ft (9,750 m)
cruise speed main=
cruise speed alt=
stall speed main=
stall speed alt=
never exceed speed main=
never exceed speed alt=
range main=
range alt=
ceiling main=45,000 ft
ceiling alt=14,000 m
climb rate main=
climb rate alt=
loading main=
loading alt=
thrust/weight=
power/mass main=
power/mass alt=
more performance=

guns=4× 0.303 Browning machine guns
bombs=single 10 ton bomb
avionics=

ee also

* Vickers Windsor
* Nakajima G10N "Fugaku"

References

* Buttler, Tony. "Secret Projects: British Fighters and Bombers 1935 -1950 (British Secret Projects 3)". Leicester, UK: Midland Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-85780-179-2.