AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 110 / 248

Plate 110 of 248 · Second World War · Heavy bomber

Short Stirling B.Mk I

Stirling B.Mk I, N6086 ‘MacRobert’s Reply’, painted as N6086, LS-F ‘MacRobert’s Reply’, a Short Stirling B.Mk I of No. 15 Squadron at RAF Wyton in October 1941, given by Lady MacRobert in memory of her three sons killed while flying and photographed with its crew by the Ministry of Information: the RAF’s first four-engined heavy bomber, a mid-wing monoplane with four Bristol Hercules radials, a short 99 ft wing, a long slab-sided fuselage with the bomb bay running along its floor, nose, dorsal and tail turrets, and a very tall twin-wheel main undercarriage, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and twin tail wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces over night-black sides and undersides, with a high demarcation, black fin and rudder, type B roundels above the wings, type A1 roundels on the fuselage, a fin flash, light grey ‘LS-F’ codes with F forward on both sides, the serial behind the crew door, and the MacRobert crest with ‘MACROBERT’S REPLY’ beneath it on the port nose (shape from a published Stirling Mk I three-view, checked against wartime photographs of N6086); no complete Stirling survives, and RAF Museum London and Hardwick Airfield Museum hold only fragments.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as N6086, LS-F ‘MacRobert’s Reply’, a Short Stirling B.Mk I of No. 15 Squadron at RAF Wyton in October 1941, given by Lady MacRobert in memory of her three sons killed while flying and photographed with its crew by the Ministry of Information: the RAF’s first four-engined heavy bomber, a mid-wing monoplane with four Bristol Hercules radials, a short 99 ft wing, a long slab-sided fuselage with the bomb bay running along its floor, nose, dorsal and tail turrets, and a very tall twin-wheel main undercarriage, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and twin tail wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces over night-black sides and undersides, with a high demarcation, black fin and rudder, type B roundels above the wings, type A1 roundels on the fuselage, a fin flash, light grey ‘LS-F’ codes with F forward on both sides, the serial behind the crew door, and the MacRobert crest with ‘MACROBERT’S REPLY’ beneath it on the port nose (shape from a published Stirling Mk I three-view, checked against wartime photographs of N6086); no complete Stirling survives, and RAF Museum London and Hardwick Airfield Museum hold only fragments. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.5 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (I/III/IV); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Stirling B.Mk I, N6086 ‘MacRobert’s Reply’ modelled here.

History

The Stirling

The Stirling was built to Air Ministry Specification B.12/36, which asked for a four-engined heavy bomber, and the Air Ministry held the wing span under 100 feet. Short Brothers of Rochester, best known for flying boats, gave it a long, slab-sided fuselage with a bomb bay running along its floor and a wing of only 99 ft span. To get the short wing off the ground with a full load the angle of incidence had to be high, and the undercarriage was made very tall to give it. Short first flew a half-scale wooden model, the S.31, in September 1938, and the first full-size prototype, L7600, flew on 14 May 1939; its undercarriage collapsed on landing and it was written off.

The Stirling was the first four-engined bomber in RAF service. No. 7 Squadron received its first aircraft in August 1940 and flew the first Stirling raid, on oil tanks at Rotterdam, on the night of 10–11 February 1941. Crews liked its handling and found it could out-turn night fighters, but the short wing kept its ceiling low, so it was hit harder by flak than the Halifax and Lancaster, and its bomb bay, divided into narrow cells, could not take bombs bigger than 2,000 lb. The Stirling III, with more powerful Hercules XVI engines and a new dorsal turret, became the main production version in 1942.

As the Lancaster arrived in numbers, the Stirling was moved off the main bombing raids from late 1943 and to minelaying and supply drops for the Special Operations Executive. The Stirling IV, with its nose and dorsal turrets removed, towed gliders and dropped paratroops on D-Day and at Arnhem, and the Stirling V transport served Transport Command until 1946. In all 2,371 Stirlings were built, at Rochester, Belfast, by Austin at Longbridge and in shadow factories. None survives whole.

This airframe

Stirling I N6086 ‘MacRobert’s Reply’

N6086The airframe modelled

N6086 was delivered to No. 15 Squadron at RAF Wyton in 1941 as the aircraft bought with Lady MacRobert’s gift. It carried the code LS-F and the MacRobert family crest on its nose. In October 1941 the Ministry of Information photographed it and its crew for the press and a recruiting poster. It flew about a dozen sorties with the squadron before going to a heavy conversion unit, and, like every other Stirling, it was later lost or scrapped. No complete Stirling exists: RAF Museum London and Hardwick Airfield Museum hold only fragments. The model shows N6086 as those wartime photographs record it, standing tail-down on its tall main undercarriage and twin tail wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces over night-black sides and undersides, black fin and rudder, type B roundels above the wings, type A1 roundels on the fuselage, a red, white and blue fin flash, light grey ‘LS-F’ codes with the F forward on both sides, the serial behind the crew door and, on the port nose, the MacRobert crest with ‘MACROBERT’S REPLY’ beneath it. The shape follows a published Stirling Mk I three-view, checked against photographs of N6086 and other early Stirlings; the dorsal turret, standard on Mk Is by late 1941, is assumed, as no photograph shows N6086’s spine.

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Stirling in 2 UK collections.

Every airframe and serial All 248 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.