A twin-engine British medium bomber, the Vickers Wellington achieved fame as the most-produced British bomber and probably with the largest number of variants and served in the highest number of roles.
In almost every case where the Wellington occurs in the books of W. E. Johns, it was being used in the personnel or load carrying role. This is especially true in the Air Police era stories where Biggles used the Wellington probably because it was plentifully available postwar and it offered good range and lift performance for those occasions when he needed to go far afield. Specialised transport variants of the Wellington e.g. the Mk XVI were developed or converted from existing bomber variants and this could have been the mark of Wellington used by Biggles.
List of Books and stories where the Wellington occurs[]
- Worrals Carries On - Worrals suggested this aircraft type for dropping her and Frecks by parachute and then landing to pick up a group of refugees. But in the end, Bill Ashton used a Havelock troop carrier because it was more suitable. He did not explain why but see Havelock for discussion.
- Gimlet Goes Again - Biggles uses 6 of them to ferry Gimlet and his men back from France.
- Biggles in the Orient - used to transport supplies to Chungking in China.
- Biggles Breaks the Silence - definitely an unarmed variant was used otherwise Biggles would not have outgunned Lavinsky totally during the final confrontation.
- Biggles Works It Out
- Biggles Takes the Case
- Biggles of the Special Air Police
- The Case of the Mandarin's Treasure Chest - one of the rare occasions when he takes an armed variant and actually used the guns in both turrets.
- Biggles and the Pirate Treasure
- Biggles of the Interpol
- Short Sorties
- Some Go in Darkness - a non-Biggles/Worrals/Gimlet story and probably the only time the Wellington appears in its classical bomber role.