Does anyone know where I can find informatin about a Whitley bomber?
From Wikipedia (you all know what it means…:mrgreen:)
The Whitley was developed by John Lloyd, the chief designer of Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft from the Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 bomber-transport to meet Air Ministry Specification B.3/34 for a heavy night bomber. The Whitley carried a crew of five and was the first aircraft serving with the RAF to have a monocoque (stressed skin) fuselage, which resulted in a slab-sided structure and eased production. As Lloyd was unfamiliar with the use of flaps on a large heavy monoplane, the mid-set wings were set at a high angle of incidence (8.5 deg) to give good takeoff and landing performance. As a result, all Whitleys flew with a pronounced nose-down attitude of the fuselage. This “nose down” attitude was first seen in the design of the Armstrong Whitworth Ensign pre-war airliner.
The first prototype Whitley (K4586) first flew from Baginton airfield on 17 March 1936, piloted by Armstrong Whitworth’s chief test pilot Campbell Orde, and was powered by two 795 hp Armstrong Siddeley Tiger IX engines. Owing to the urgent need to replace biplane heavy bombers still in service with the RAF, an order for 160 aircraft had been placed in 1935, before the Whitley had first flown. After the first 34 aircraft had been built, the engines were replaced with more reliable two-stage supercharged Tiger VIIIs, in the Whitley II.
While the Tiger VIIIs used in the Whitley II and III were more reliable than those used in early aircraft, the Whitley was re-engined with Rolls Royce Merlin engines in 1938 giving rise to the Whitley IV.
Early marks of the Whitley had bomb bay doors which were kept closed by bungee cords, and opened by the weight of the released bombs falling on them. The Mk III version introduced hydraulically actuated doors which greatly improved bombing accuracy. To aim bombs, the bombardier opened a hatch in the nose of the aircraft which extended the bombsight out of the fuselage, but to everyone’s comfort, the Mk IV replaced this hatch with a slightly extended transparency.
Of the 1,737 Whitleys produced, there are no surviving complete aircraft in existence; however, fuselage sections are displayed at the Midland Air Museum (MAM) whose site is located adjacent to the airfield from where the Whitley’s maiden flight took place.
[edit]Operational history
The Whitley first entered service with No. 10 Squadron in March 1937, replacing Handley Page Heyford biplanes, and by the outbreak of the Second World War, seven squadrons were operational with the Whitley. The majority were flying Whitley IIIs or IVs as the Whitley V had only just been introduced.
Along with the Handley Page Hampden and the Vickers Wellington, the Whitley bore the brunt of the early fighting, seeing action on the first night of the war, dropping leaflets over Germany. Amongst the many aircrew who flew the Whitley in operations over Germany was the later to be famous Leonard Cheshire who spent most of his first three years at war flying Whitleys. Unlike the Hampden and Wellington, however, the Whitley was always intended for night operations, and so did not share the early heavy losses received in attempted daylight raids on German shipping early in the war. Along with Hampdens, the Whitley made the first bombing raid on German soil on the night of 19-20 March 1940, attacking the Hornum seaplane base on the Island of Sylt. Whitleys also carried out the first RAF raid on Italy in June 1940.
As the oldest of the three bombers, the Whitley was obsolete by the start of the war, yet over 1,000 more were produced before a suitable replacement was found. With Bomber Command, Whitleys flew 8,996 operations, dropped 9,845 tons of bombs with 269 aircraft lost in action. The Whitley was retired from all front line service in late 1942 but it continued to operate as a transport for troops and freight, as well as for paratroop training and towing gliders. No. 100 Group RAF used Whitleys to carry airborne radar and counter-measures.
BOAC operated 15 Whitley Mk Vs converted into freighters in 1942. Running night supply flights from Gibraltar to Malta, they took seven hours to reach the island, often landing during air attacks. They used large quantities of fuel for a small payload and were replaced in August 1942 by the Lockheed Hudson, with the 14 survivors being returned to the Royal Air Force.
The long-range Coastal Command Mk VII variants were among the last to see front line service, with the first kill attributed to them being the sinking of the German U-boat U-751, on 17 July 1942 in combination with a Lancaster heavy bomber. Having evaluated the Whitley in 1942, the Fleet Air Arm operated a number of modified ex-RAF Mk VIIs from 1944–46 to train aircrew in Merlin engine management and fuel transfer procedures.
Can’t deny the goodness of Wikipedia, but here’s another site that might help also:
http://www.rcaf.com/aircraft/bombers/whitley/index.php?name=Whitley
See ya!
No wonder I have never heard of this plane. It was withdrawn from service by April 1942.
Nice find and information. Hey! I learned something new today! 
thanx but i am still needing information on one aircraft in particular LA837
can anyone suggest where i might find information on this aircraft?
panther…
Where in the world did you find that site?..!!!
I was bored one day and just googled it.
Whitley LA837
19 OUT – A Flight
Took off 1035 Kinloss for a cross country flight. Late in the afternoon, while receiving homing advice from direction finding stations, all contact ceased at around 1700. Subsequently, it was established that the bomber was flown into high ground 2000 feet above sea level in the Hills of Cromdale, 6 miles ENE of Grantown-on-Spey, Moray.
Sgt P W Barrett killed
P/O S J Stenning killed
Sgt J R C Rugeroni-Hope injured (died of injuries 2 Feb 1943)
Sgt J Douglas killed
Sgt A P Watson injured
From: Chorley’s “Bomber Command Losses Volume 7 - OTU 1940-47”