JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

This great cutaway by the prolific S. Clatworthy appeared in the March 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics. It illustrates a  section of the Vickers Wellington light bomber–a 6-man, 6’4 long and 86′ wide medium distance aircraft that saw service from the mid-1930’s and served with distinction throughout the entire duration of WWII.  It is an unusual view through the plane, an oblique but nearly straight-down view showing the position of members of the crew and most especially the bombardier.  

Here’s a very nice presentation of the (Mark IX) bombsight shown in the inset of the cutaway, this from the Glenn’s Museum site, here: http://www.glennsmuseum.com/bombsights/pics/mark_ix_side.jpg

“The British-designed RAF Mark IX bombsight was first introduced in 1939. It was used on Canadian and Great Britain planes in World War II: in particular Lancaster, Wellington and Sterling bombers, and Mosquitos, Beauforts and Beaufighters fighters. This was an early preset vector bombsight that involved squinting through wires that had to be manually set based on aircraft speed, altitude and bombload. The sight lacked tactical flexibility as it had to be manually adjusted if any of the parameters changed.”

A nice image of a Wellington on the cover of Popular Science this same year (1940), here: http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=oScDAAAAMBAJ&pg=0&query