Short Stirling

A Brief History of Stirling

The

Short Sterling formed the backbone of the RAF's heavy bomber fleet from January 1941, and from then until the end of World War II in 1945, it proved to be an outdated design and was downgraded for transportation duties. Designed from the start as a four-engine heavy bomber (most RAF four-engine bombers started out as twin-engine designs), Stirling's breakthrough came in the early 1940s with the Mk III variant, which proved to be the ultimate master bomber.

The Short Stirlings served with a total of 28 RAF bomber squadrons, and left their mark on the war, although more famous mounts such as the Avro Lancaster appeared.

Short Stirling stems from the RAF need for a four-engine heavy bomber with reasonable range and lethal payload in 1936. Half-scale prototypes were flown in 1938, and full-scale prototypes were delivered for testing in 1939. A more traditional design uses a forward flight deck, a centralized internal bomb bay and tricycle landing gear. The wings are mounted straight and low, and each component manages two forward engine nacelles. Each engine drives a three-bladed propeller.

The landing gear was retractable, and the main legs remained fairly high, giving the Stirling bomber a fairly prominent nose-up profile when landing. The tail is conventional, with a vertical fin flanked by two low-mounted horizontal planes. Typical crew accommodation consists of a crew of seven including two pilots, a navigator/bombardier, an archer, a flight engineer and two full-time gunners. Defensive armament includes 8 x 7.7mm (0.303 caliber) machine guns - 2 x powered bow turrets, 2 x powered dorsal turrets and 4 x powered stern turrets.

On the offensive end, the bomber could carry more than 14,000 pounds of interior items.

By 1940, the Stirling was in mass production and entered service the following year. In its original Mk I form, the Stirling was powered by 4 x Bristol Hercules XI radial piston engines, and would be the brand in key years of the war - with enough range to reach the German capital, Berlin, if needed.

A Mk II model followed as a prototype and featured 4x Wright Cyclone engines - although it was never produced. Thus, the final Mk III with 4 x Bristol Hercules XVI engines followed as the main bomber model of the Stirling series.

The Mk III series is also equipped with specialized "pathfinder" equipment, making it useful for airborne paratrooper operations or for guiding a follower bomber formation to the correct target in low light conditions.

By 1944, the Stirling had seen her best fighting years. With victories on the African, Pacific, French, Italian, and Eastern fronts, the tide turned in favor of the Allies.

With more modern products abandoned, the Stirling was relegated to a secondary role such as a glider/transport tug (Mk IV) and was used extensively in air operations for the remainder of the war. As the last variant of the Short Sterling, a special transport model (Mk V) was developed.

In addition to the RAF, Belgium, Egypt and Germany also used Short Stirling. While serving in Belgium, these were the post-war mounts used by the commercial company Trans-Air. Some time later, the Egyptian Air Force procured eight former Belgian airframes.

German use was limited to salvaged examples and was operated on a limited basis by the Luftwaffe special aviation group "KG 200" ("Kampfgeschwader 200"). KG 200 was disbanded after the war in 1945.

Ultimately, 2,383 Short Stirlings were produced by Short Brothers, Rochester Short Brothers and Harland and Belfast Austin Motor Company.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes