1941-Now: Unused

The Short Stirling was the first four-engined British heavy bomber of the Second World War. The Stirling was designed and built by Short Brothers to an RAF specification from 1936, and entered service in 1941. more...

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The Stirling was fated to have a relatively brief operational career being relegated to second line duties from 1943 onwards when other four-engined RAF bombers, specifically the Handley-Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster, took over its role.

Design and development

Throughout the 1930s, the Royal Air Force was interested primarily in twin-engine bombers. These designs put limited demands on engine production and maintenance, both of which were already stretched with the introduction of so many new types into service. However, the limitations in terms of power were so serious that the British invested heavily in development of huge engines in the 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW) class in order to improve performance. Meanwhile the U.S. and USSR were developing bombers with four smaller engines, which proved to have excellent range and fair lifting capacity, so in 1936 the RAF also decided to investigate the feasibility of the four-engined bomber.

The Air Ministry Specification B.12/36 had a mixture of requirements. In addition to a 14,000 lb (6,350 kg) bombload carried to a range of 3,000 miles (4,800 km) (incredibly demanding for the era), the aircraft should also be able to be used as a troop transport for 24 soldiers. The idea was that it would fly troops to far corners of the British Empire and then support them with bombing. To help with this task as well as ease production, it needed to be able to be broken down into parts for transport by train. Since it could be operating from limited "back country" airfields, it needed to lift off from a 500 ft (150 m) runway and able to clear 50 ft (15 m) trees at the end, a specification most small aircraft would have a problem with today. The wingspan was limited to 100 ft (30 m) so the aircraft would fit into existing hangars. The wingspan limit was also imposed in an unsuccessful attempt to ensure the Stirling's weight was kept down.

Initially left out of those asked to tender designs, Shorts were included because they already had similar designs in hand and they had ample design staff and production facilities. They were already producing several four-engined flying boat designs of the required size and created their S.29 design by removing the lower deck and boat hull of their S.25 Sunderland. The new S.29 design was largely identical otherwise: the wings and controls were the same, construction was identical and it even retained the slight upward bend at the rear of the fuselage, originally intended to keep the Sunderland's tail clear of sea spray.

Read more at Wikipedia.org