Civilian airliner using the wings of Barnes Wallis Victory Bomber

[PMN1]

Barnes Wallis drew up in 1940 rough specifications for a bomber he christened the ‘Victory Bomber’ – it would weigh 50 tons and fly at 320mph at 45,000 feet carrying a 10-ton bomb for 4,000 miles.

It went through a period of development before being abandoned - apparently a major problem (as far as the Air Staff were concerned) was the ability to carry only one large bomb - didn't seem to know about the atom bomb....

Specs of the Victory Bomber:

1941

Span(ft.in/m): 172/52.4
Length(ft.in/m): 96/29.3
Wing area(ft2/m2): 2675/248.8
Max Weight(lb/kg): 104,000/47,174
Engines: 6x Merlin RM.6.SM or Hercules
Max speed(mph/kmh) at height(ft/m): 352/566 at 32,000/9,754
Armament: 1x 10ton bomb, 4x defensive guns


1942

Span(ft.in/m): 172.1/52.5
Length(ft.in/m): 100.8/30.7
Wing area(ft2/m2): 2676/248.9
Max Weight(lb/kg): 113,500/51,484
Engines: 6x Merlin 60
Max speed(mph/kmh) at height(ft/m): 360/579 at 40,000/12,192
Armament: 32,000lb of bombs, 2x 0.5" MGs


Now, what kind of performance do you think you could have got from a passenger transport version that used the wings but had a new circular pressurised fuselage in the same way the Valiant, Victor and Vulcan all had passenger transports that used their wings etc?

 

[Kim Margosein]

Wouldn't that be something broadly in the Boeing Stratocruiser class?

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

Wouldn't that be something broadly in the Boeing Stratocruiser class?

That's possible, but remember that the Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was in the same weight class as the V-tail Bristol 100-ton bomber, not the Stratocruiser.