Bristol Bombay The Bristol Bombay was a British troop transport aircraft adaptable for use as a medium bomber flown by the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) during the Second World War . Development . The Bristol Bombay was built to Air Ministry Specification C . 26 / 31 which called for a monoplane bomber - transport aircraft to replace the Vickers Valentia biplane in use in the Middle East and India . The aircraft was required to be capable of carrying 24 troops or an equivalent load of cargo as a transport , while carrying bombs and defensive guns for use as a bomber . This dual - purpose design concept was common to British pre - war designs . Other entities for the specification were the Armstrong Whitworth A . W . 23 and the Handley Page HP . 51 . Bristol ' s design , the Type 130 , was a high - wing cantilever monoplane of all - metal construction . Bristol ' s last monoplane design , the 1927 Bagshot , had suffered from lack of torsional rigidity in the wings leading to aileron reversal . This led to an extensive research program at Bristol which resulted in a wing design with a stressed metal skin rivetted to an internal framework consisting of multiple spars and the ribs . This was the basis of the Bombay ' s wing , which had seven spars , with high - tensile steel flanges and alclad webs . The aircraft had a twin - tail and a fixed tailwheel undercarriage . The aircraft ' s crew consisted of a pilot , who sat in an enclosed cockpit , a navigator / bomb - aimer , whose working position was in the nose , and a radio - operator / gunner , who divided his time between the radio operators position behind the cockpit and a gun turret in the nose . When operated as a bomber , an additional gunner was carried to man the tail gun position . In the prototype , this position cockpit equipped with a single Lewis gun on a scarff ring , but in production aircraft , both gun positions were hydraulically - operated gun turrets armed with single Vickers K machine gun s . Eight bombs could be carried on racks under the fuselage . The prototype Type 130 first flew on 23 June 1935 , powered by two Bristol Pegasus III radial engines driving two - bladed propellers . Testing was successful and an order for 80 was placed as the Bombay in July 1937 . These differed from the prototype in having more powerful ( ) driving three - bladed Rotol variable pitch propellers , and discarding the wheel spats fitting to the undercarriage mainwheels in the prototype . As Bristol ' s Filton factory was busy building the more urgent Blenheim , the production aircraft were built by Short & Harland of Belfast . However , the complex nature of the Bombay ' s wing delayed production at Belfast , with the first Bombay not being delivered until 1939 , and the last 30 being cancelled . Operational history . The first production Bombay flew on March 1939 , with deliveries to No . 216 Squadron RAF based in Egypt beginning in September that year . Although it was outclassed as a bomber for the European theatre , it saw some service with British - based 271 Squadron ferrying supplies to the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 . In June 1940 , French pilot Jean - Francois Demozay borrowed an abandoned Bombay to ferry himself and 15 troops from France to England , after which he became an ace with the RAF . The Bombay ' s main service was in the Middle East , particularly with 216 Squadron , which operated most of the Bombays built at some stage . When war with Italy began in June 1940 , in the absence of more modern aircraft , 216 Squadron ' s Bombays were used as night bombers as well as in their principal role of transport aircraft . The design bombload of 250 lb bombs under the fuselage was supplemented by improvised bombs thrown out of the cargo door by hand . The aircraft flew bombing sorties against targets in the Western Desert , including Benghazi and Tobruk , and against Italian Somaliland , until the buildup of Vickers Wellington bombers in Egypt allowed the Bombays to concentrate on transport operations . In the transport role , they ferried supplies and evacuated the wounded during the Siege of Tobruk , while on 2 May 1941 , Bombays of No . 216 Squadron RAF evacuated the Greek Royal Family from Crete to Egypt . Later that month , Bombays played an important role in ferrying troops during the Anglo - Iraqi War . Five Bombays were used by the fledgling SAS in their first official operation in the Middle East , a raid on five forward German aerodromes on 17 November 1941 . Lieutenant General William Gott , the highest ranking British officer killed in the war , died when the Bombay in which he was being carried was shot down in the Western African Desert on 7 August 1942 . He was about to assume command from General Claude Auchinleck . His death opened the way for General Bernard Montgomery to take over . Bombays evacuated over 2000 wounded during the Sicily campaign in 1943 , and one crew was credited with carrying 6000 casualties from Sicily and Italy before the type was finally withdrawn from use in 1944 .