The Westland Yeovil was a British
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes
air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles.
There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...
designed and built by
Westland Aircraft
Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...
in 1923 to meet an
Air Ministry specification for a single-engined
day bomber
A day bomber is a bomber aircraft designed specifically for bombing missions in daylight. The term is now mostly of historical significance, because aircraft suited to both day and night bombing missions have become the norm.
History
During ...
.
Development
The Yeovil was designed to meet
Air Ministry Specification 26/23 for a single-engined day bomber, with a
Rolls-Royce Condor engine specified by the ministry. It was a two-bay staggered biplane of composite wood and metal construction. It had a crew of two with the pilot in a cockpit at the front and the bomb aimer/gunner behind.
It was powered by a nose-mounted tractor Rolls-Royce Condor IIIA piston engine, fitted with a
Leitner-Watts
The Metal Airscrew Company was formed in 1919 by Dr. Henry Charles Watts and Henry Leitner to produce hollow metal aircraft propellers with a method set out in their joint patent. By 1928 the company name had changed to Metal Propellers Ltd. It ...
metal propeller.
Three
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
s were ordered. The first, ''J7508'', made its first flight in 1925 from
RAF Andover
RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station in England, west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Ca ...
, with Captain Frank Courtney as the
test pilot
A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...
. The prototype was delivered to
RAF Martlesham Heath
Royal Air Force Martlesham Heath or more simply RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force station located southwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. It was active between 1917 and 1963, and played an important role in the development o ...
for evaluation against the other aircraft built to meet the specification, the
Hawker Horsley
The Hawker Horsley was a British single-engined biplane bomber of the 1920s. It was the last all-wooden aircraft built by Hawker Aircraft, and served as a medium day bomber and torpedo bomber with Britain's Royal Air Force between 1926 and 1935 ...
and the
Bristol Berkeley. After evaluation, the Yeovil and Berkley were not ordered into production, and the Horsley had already been given a contract against a different specification. The three Yeovil prototypes continued to fly for a few years for research and testing.
Specifications
See also
References
{{Westland aircraft
Yeovil
Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...
1920s British bomber aircraft
Biplanes
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear
Aircraft first flown in 1925
Single-engined piston aircraft