Short Stirling & RAF Bomber Command Forum

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to share some amazing photos of the Short Stirling aircraft, during production and in service.
PLEASE NOTE - THIS COLLECTION OF PHOTOS GET BETTER AND LARGER AS YOU SCROLL THROUGH THE COLLECTION PAGES
Regards,
John

Hi John,

Thanks very much for all these photos.
Regards.


Bruno

Yes, neve tire of looking at them - in many ways I think the Stirling is very photogenic.

For example this one is almost is almost like a disney cartoon - quite pugilistic - bit like Bluto?? Sorry by the way if I am highjacking the topic - do feel free to remove it if so.

halifax1 wrote:Yes, neve tire of looking at them - in many ways I think the Stirling is very photogenic.

For example this one is almost is almost like a disney cartoon - quite pugilistic - bit like Bluto?? Sorry by the way if I am highjacking the topic - do feel free to remove it if so.

My dear wife

Often calls me her “Stirling”, too slow, too big and rather ungainly to look at.

She loves me really ( I have been told )

Great pics John,
but,
There is something wrong about the engines......... Oh, they're round !!

hehe !

N

That real Norfolk or one of your tricks?

This one is:

The sterling aircraft looks taller in the leg than our beloved Lancaster . Where were the Sterlings built , did they have the range of the Wellington & Lancasters ,and could they take the abuse as well as the Wellington . Sorry to sound ignorant towards this aircraft ,but Ive never studied this aircraft . Its almost like Every-body talks about the Spitfire & the Battle of Britain ,as everybody thinks its the Spitfire that done the work , when clearly it was the Hurricane that was the main stay . Sorry to venture of target but to explain my thoughts . Riskey

Actually Mike the Stirling had some pretty good things going for it - like being very roomy - and able to out turn a fighter and was quite robust. Crews are said to have supported the maxim that a violent corkscrew did no faze them because "the pilot will come apart before she will". But you did need to be a good pilot to fly her.

Murray Pedan - a Canadian - and still alive and well in Canada as a Senior Lawyer (author of A Thousand Shall Fall) considered the Stirling a Heroine to her crews. MAP specifications made life difficult for her and placed her at considerable disadvantage. But the Stirling was very versatile - more so perhaps than the Lancaster? Without the impediment of MAP dictates who knows just how good an aeroplane the Stirling might have become. Harris I believe had a bit if bias against and was impatient of it's parent.

I am pretty sure many will add to this.

Oh by the way they were built in many places - Shorts of course - Birmingham (my Aunt was in the workforce at Longbridge and Rochester Kent to name a few.

But one of the Stirling's drawbacks as a heavy bomber was the arrangement of her bomb-bay. Instead of it being a capacious cavern like the Lanc's was, so that a wide range of different weapons could be carried, the Stirling's was segmented thereby limiting the weapon load. Stirlings, despite their handling abilities, did struggle to reach the altitude that the Lancs and Halifaxes could reach and were therefore in a vulnerable position in any bomber stream from flak below and bombs above!

I was going through some of my files recently and found this picture, I've no idea where it came from or how long I've had the copy, but it's the kind of picture that I love studying.