page_title: Vickers Wellington
section_title: Aircraft on display
hierarchical_section_title: Vickers Wellington / Aircraft on display
caption_attribution_description: English: Vickers Wellington T.10 bomber serial number MF628 undergoing restoration at RAF Cosford, Donington, UK in 2018
context_page_description: The Vickers Wellington is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, issued in the middle of 1932, for a bomber for the Royal Air Force.
  This specification called for a twin-engined day bomber capable of delivering higher performance than any previous design. Other aircraft developed to the same specification include the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and the Handley Page Hampden. During the development process, performance requirements such as for the tare weight changed substantially, and the engine used was not the one originally intended.
  The Wellington was used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, performing as one of the principal bombers used by Bomber Command. During 1943, it started to be superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster.
context_section_description: There are two complete surviving Vickers Wellingtons preserved in the United Kingdom. Some other substantial parts also survive.
  Wellington IA serial number N2980 is owned by Brooklands Museum at Brooklands, Surrey. Built at Brooklands and first flown in November 1939, this aircraft took part in the RAF's daylight bombing raids on Germany early in the Second World War but later lost power during a training flight on 31 December 1940 and ditched in Loch Ness. All the occupants survived except the rear gunner, who was killed when his parachute failed to open. The aircraft was recovered from the bottom of Loch Ness in September 1985 and restored in the late 1980s and 1990s. A new Wellington exhibition featuring N2980 was officially opened by Robin Holmes (who led the recovery team), Penelope Keith (as trustee of Brooklands Museum), Norman Parker (who worked for Vickers) and Ken Wallis (who flew Wellingtons operationally) on 15 June 2011, the 75th anniversary of the first flight of the type's effective prototype in 1936.
  On 15 September 2016, after having its outer wings removed the day before, N2980 was towed from the Bellman hangar in which it was restored and where it had been displayed for nearly 30 years. This move was the first time that 'R' for 'Robert' had moved on its undercarriage since its last flight in 1940. The aircraft was exhibited in a temporary building while the Bellman hangar was relocated and restored until taken off display and moved back into the latter building on 25 July 2017. The aeroplane is the centre-piece of the 'Brooklands Aircraft Factory' exhibition about the aircraft industry at Brooklands, which was formally opened on 13 November 2017.
  Wellington T.10 serial number MF628 is held by the Royal Air Force Museum. It was delivered to RAF No.18 MU (Maintenance Unit) for storage at RAF Tinwald Downs, Dumfries, as a Wellington B.X, on 11 May 1944. In March 1948 the front gun turret was removed in its conversion to a T.10 for its role as a postwar aircrew trainer. This aircraft is the Wellington seen taking off in The Dam Busters and was also used for some air-to-air photography on the movie.
  This aircraft made the last flight of a Wellington, from Aston Down to Wisley, in January 1955. The RAF Museum later refitted the front gun turret in keeping with its original build as a B.X (wartime mark numbers used Roman numerals, Arabic numerals were adopted postwar). In Autumn 2010, this aircraft was taken to the RAF Museum's site at Cosford for restoration which is currently ongoing.
caption: Vickers Wellington T.10 serial number MF628 undergoing restoration
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