50 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS
SHORT
STIRLING
V
eteran test pilot John Lankester
Parker sat in the prototype
Short Stirling, L7600, at
Rochester, ready for take-off on May
14, 1939. This was his 32nd maiden
flight since May 1918. Alongside him
was co-pilot Sqn Ldr Eric Moreton,
on loan from the RAF. George Cotton
acted as observer and ‘wheel-winder’
should the electrical system fail and
the massive, stalky undercarriage need
to be brought up – or put down –
manually.
The 20-minute debut went well;
the Stirling had good characteristics.
But as L7600 touched down
the big machine spun around,
the undercarriage crumpled and
collapsed. Nobody was hurt and it was
discovered that a brake had seized.
It was December 3 before Parker
ventured skywards in the second
example, L7605. Prior to his
retirement, Parker carried out two
more first flights, of the prototype
G-Class and Shetland flying-boats.
The undercarriage plagued the
Stirling throughout its career. Why
was it so tall and so complex? Destined
to be the first four-engined ‘heavy’ to
enter RAF service, the Short design
staff, under Arthur Gouge, found that
expediency governed most decisions.
Originally the Stirling was to adopt
the 112ft 9in (34.36m) wing structure
of the Sunderland flying-boat but the
Air Ministry insisted on a span of less
that 100ft. The wing was redesigned,
increasing the broad chord profile
and stunting the bomber’s operating
height.
Until the advent of the Stirling,
Short had no experience of a
retractable undercarriage. Gouge
opted for multiple oleos instead of
a simpler and more robust forged
casting. The latter would have cost
time and money in an already tight
development schedule.
The first Stirlings were issued to 7
Squadron at Leeming in August 1940.
With the introduction of the Halifax
and Lancaster raid planners were
faced with complications because the
Stirling could not fly as high as either
of these, requiring careful attentionto target approaches. By mid-1943
Stirlings began to be phased out and
the type flew its last raid with Bomber
Command in September 1944.
Stirlings found new use as glider
tugs and dropping supplies on
‘special duties’ sorties. The Mk.IV
was converted to exclusive transport
roles and the final version, the Mk.V
was built from scratch as a turret-
less transport. In this guise the final
Stirlings were withdrawn from RAF
service in March 1946.FAMILY TRAGEDY
Newly delivered to 15 Squadron
at Wyton, Stirling I N6086 F-for-
Freddie had been carefully bedecked
with two family crests and the
name MacRobert’s Reply just below
the cockpit. The bomber was the
centrepiece of a bitter-sweet naming
ceremony on October 10, 1941.
American-born Lady Rachel
Markham MacRobert had donated
£25,000 to finance N6086. In
present-day values that figure would
approximate to £1,375,000, but
it is perhaps best put in context by
knowing the average annual wage in
Britain for 1940 was £248.
The reason for the gift was prompted
by tragedy. Eldest son and heir
Alasdair had died in a civilian flying
accident on June 1, 1938.
Middle son Flt Lt Roderic1918 20181940 TO 1946
MacRobert was posted to Habbaniya
in Iraq. Flying a Hawker Hurricane,
26-year-old Roderic was killed while
raiding Mosul airfield on May 16,- It is thought he was hit by
fragments from a Messerschmitt Bf
110 he had bombed at ultra-low level.
On the last day of June 1941, Plt Off
Iain MacRobert, 24, took off from
Thornaby flying Blenheim IV Z5982
of 608 Squadron on an air-sea rescue
sortie. Ian and his crew of three were
not seen again.
The MacRobert dynasty was no
more. Hence the purchase of N6086,
Lady MacRobert noted that through
the Stirling, her sons: “would be glad
that their mother replied for them and
helped to strike a blow at the enemy.”
MACROBERT’S REPLY
Sqn Ldr Peter Boggis captained
MacRobert’s Reply on its first ‘op’, to
Nuremburg, Germany, on October
12, 1941. Boggis commanded N6086
on at least five more occasions,
including an attack on the Skoda
factory at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia on
the 28th from which Freddie returned
with flak damage to the rear fuselage.
A daylight sortie on December 18
in N6086 was the last ‘op’ Boggis flew
with 15 Squadron. The destination
was the harbour at Brest, France, and
on the home leg one of the gunners
shot down a Bf 109.Type: Seven/eight crew heavy bomber
First fl ight: May 14, 1939, Mk.I entered service August 1940
Powerplant: Four 1,650hp (1,230kW) Bristol Hercules XVI radials
Dimensions: Span 99ft 1in (30.20m), Length 87ft 3in (26.59m)
Weights: Empty 43,200lb (19,595kg), All-up 70,000lb (31,752kg)
Max speed: 270mph (434km/h) at 14,500ft (4,419m)
Range: 2,010 miles (3,234km)
Armament: Nose, mid-upper and rear turrets with two, two and four machine
guns respectively. Up to 14,000lb (6,350kg) of bombs
Replaced: Handley Page Hampden from 1940, Vickers Wellington from 1941,
Boeing Fortress from 1942
Taken on charge: 2,368 including sub-contract to Austin Motors
Replaced by: Avro Lancaster from 1943, Handley Page Halifax from 1944SHORT STIRLING III
SHORT STIRLING