Warwick ASR Mark I, BV356 HK-E, of No. 269 Squadron RAF, based at Lagens, in flight along the coast of Terceira. BV356 was a redesignated Stage C aircraft, seen here carrying a Mark II lifeboat.
The Vickers Warwick was a multi-purpose twin-engined British aircraft developed and operated during the Second World War. In line with the naming convention followed by other RAF heavy bombers of the era, it was named after a British city or town, in this case the city of Warwick. The Warwick was the largest British twin-engined aircraft to see use during the Second World War.
The Warwick was designed and manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs during the late 1930s. It was intended to serve as a larger counterpart to the firm's successful Wellington bomber; as such, the two aircraft share similar construction and design principles. However, unlike the smaller Wellington bomber, development of the Warwick was protracted by a lack of suitable high-powered engines with which to power the type. While the maiden flight occurred on August 13th 1939, delays to its intended powerplant, the Napier Sabre engine, led to alternatives being explored in the form of the Bristol Centaurus radial engine. By the time capable engines were available, rapid advances in the field of aviation had undermined the potency of the design in the face of the fighters of the Luftwaffe and Soviet Air Force.
While the Warwick did enter quantity production during 1942 and squadron service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) shortly thereafter, it had been made effectively redundant in the bomber role by aircraft of rival firms, thus barely more than a dozen aircraft were configured as bombers. Instead, the type was placed into operational use by the RAF in various other capacities, such as under RAF Transport Command for transport duties, in addition to its adoption by RAF Coastal Command as an air-sea rescue and maritime reconnaissance platform. The Warwick was also adopted by the Polish Air Forces in exile in Great Britain and the South African Air Force. A civil operator, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), also operated a handful of Warwicks.
