66648b

BravoZulu · Sep 7, 2017

Vickers Wellington DWI (Directional Wireless Installation)
The Wellington DWI was one of the most distinctive aircraft variants to serve during the Second World War. It was developed in response to the German use of magnetic mines in the early weeks of the Second World War. Dropped from Luftwaffe aircraft in British coastal waters, these magnetic mines sank an increasing amount of ships in the early part of the war.
The key breakthrough was the retrieval of an intact mine. With this to examine two solutions to the problem were developed. One was to degauss the ships, thus removing their magnetic field. This would allow the degaussed ships to pass safely over the magnetic mines, but would leave the mines themselves intact.
A second solution was to deliberately generate a magnetic field that would detonate the mine. Attempts to do this from a ship succeeded in detonating the mines, but also damaged the ship.
The successful solution the problem involved attaching an aluminium coil inside a balsa wood ring with a diameter of 51 feet, attached to a Wellington IA bomber. This gave the bomber a very distinctive appearance. Power was provided by a Ford V8 engine driving an electrical generator. When the power was fed into the coil it generated a magnetic field that could trigger the magnetic mine.
More:http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_wellington_dwi.html

66648b

BravoZulu

Media information

Share this media

We value your privacy