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48-702: The Bristol Bombay was a British troop transport aircraft adaptable for use as a medium bomber flown by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War . The Bristol Bombay was built to Air Ministry Specification C.26/31 which called for a monoplane bomber-transport aircraft to replace the Vickers Valentia biplane in use in the Middle East and India. The aircraft was required to be capable of carrying 24 troops or an equivalent load of cargo as

96-499: A Lewis gun on a Scarff ring but in production aircraft, both gun positions were hydraulically-operated gun turrets each armed with a Vickers K machine gun . Eight 250-pound (110 kg) bombs could be carried on racks under the fuselage. A prototype Type 130 was ordered in March 1933 and first flew on 23 June 1935, powered by two 750 horsepower (560 kW) Bristol Pegasus III radial engines driving two-bladed propellers. Testing

144-495: A platoon of infantry, or transporting towed artillery or light vehicles either internally or as underslung roles. Unlike the assault helicopter they are usually not expected to land directly in a contested landing zone, but are used to reinforce and resupply landing zones taken by the initial assault wave. Examples include the unarmed versions of the Mil Mi-8, Super Puma , CH-46 Sea Knight , and NH90 . Heavy lift helicopters are

192-521: A few hundred metres to the south-west, and the relatively modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos) a few hundred metres farther south-west. The Great Sphinx lies on the east side of the complex. Current consensus among Egyptologists is that the head of the Great Sphinx is that of Khafre . Along with these major monuments are a number of smaller satellite edifices, known as "queens" pyramids, causeways and valley pyramids. The Great Sphinx of Giza

240-673: A meteorite strike at Kebira , over the border in Libya. The Great Sand Sea is a roughly lung-shaped area of sandy desert lying astride the border with Libya, 320 km (200 mi) inland from the Mediterranean. The sea is divided by a long peninsula of rocky desert along the border, leaving the eastern lobe in Egypt and the western in Libya, where it is called the Calanshio desert. On the Egyptian side it

288-400: A pilot, who sat in an enclosed cockpit, a navigator/ bomb-aimer , whose working position was in the nose, and a radio-operator/gunner, who divided his time between the radio operator's position behind the cockpit and a gun turret in the nose. When the aircraft was operated as a bomber, an additional gunner was carried to man the tail gun position. In the prototype, this position was equipped with

336-629: A total of 15 nations) until the Allied victory in November 1942. In modern times the Egyptian government has encouraged settlements in the oases, and surveyed for minerals, particularly oil. In October 2020, President Abdul Fattah el-Sis i ordered the revival of an ambitious decades old agricultural project once named the Toshka Project (aka the New Valley Project), aimed at creating a new delta in

384-619: A transport, while carrying bombs and defensive guns for use as a bomber. This dual-purpose design concept was common to British pre-war designs. Other entries for the specification were the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.23 and the Handley Page HP.52. Bristol's design, the Type 130, was a high-wing cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction. Bristol's previous monoplane design, the 1927 Bagshot , had suffered from lack of torsional rigidity in

432-712: Is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx , a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre. The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock , and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks . It measures 73 m (240 ft) long from paw to tail, 20 m (66 ft) high from

480-514: Is a desert in the Sahara between western Egypt and eastern Libya in North Africa , 74% of the area is covered by sand dunes. The Great Sand Sea stretches about 650 km (400 mi) from north to south and 300 km (190 mi) from east to west. On satellite images this desert shows a pattern of long sand ridges running in a roughly north–south direction. However, despite the apparent uniformity

528-642: Is named in contrast to the Eastern Desert which extends east from the Nile to the Red Sea . The Western Desert is mostly rocky desert , though an area of sandy desert , known as the Great Sand Sea , lies to the west against the Libyan border. The desert covers an area of 680,650 km (262,800 sq mi) which is two-thirds of the land area of the country. Its highest elevation is 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in

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576-716: Is the site of large white chalk rock formations, created through erosion by wind and sand. It is also the site of cliffs (at the northern end of the Farafra Depression), sand dunes (part of the Great Sand Sea), as well as Wadi Hennis and oases at Ain El Maqfi and Ain El Wadi . The park serves as the refuge for various animals, including the endangered Rhim gazelle and the vulnerable Dorcas gazelle , as well as Barbary sheep ; jackals ; Rüppell's , red and fennec foxes; and

624-532: The Anglo-Iraqi War . Five Bombays were used by the fledgling SAS in their first official operation in the Middle East, a parachute drop on five forward German aerodromes on 17 November 1941. Lieutenant General William Gott , the highest ranking British officer killed in the war, died when a Bombay piloted by Hugh James in which he was being carried was shot down in the Western Desert on 7 August 1942. He

672-538: The Gilf Kebir plateau to the far south-west of the country, on the Egypt-Sudan-Libya border. The Western Desert is barren and uninhabited save for a chain of oases which extend in an arc from Siwa , in the north-west, to Kharga in the south. It has been the scene of conflict in modern times, particularly during the Second World War . Administratively the Western Desert is divided between various governorates; in

720-750: The Great Sphinx , several cemeteries, a workers' village and an industrial complex. The Giza pyramid complex (مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis and also known as the Pyramids of Giza or Egypt , is the site on the Giza Plateau in Giza and Greater Cairo , Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza , the Pyramid of Khafre , and the Pyramid of Menkaure , along with their associated pyramid complexes and

768-578: The Great Sphinx of Giza . All were built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt , between 2600 and 2500 BC. The site also includes several cemeteries and the remains of a workers' village. The Giza pyramid complex consists of the Great Pyramid (also known as the Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu and constructed c. 2580 – c. 2560 BC), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren)

816-697: The Western Desert , including Benghazi and Tobruk , and against Italian Somaliland , until the buildup of Vickers Wellington bombers in Egypt allowed the Bombays to concentrate on transport operations. As transports, they ferried supplies and evacuated the wounded during the Siege of Tobruk , and on 2 May 1941, Bombays of 216 Squadron evacuated the Greek Royal Family from Crete to Egypt . Later that month, Bombays played an important role in ferrying troops during

864-635: The White Desert , an area of wind-sculpted chalk rock formations, which give the area its name. To the south of Kharga the plateau rises towards the Gilf Kebir, an upland region lying astride the Egypt-Sudan border and home to pre-historic sites such as the Cave of Swimmers . In the south-west, near the point where the borders of Libya, Sudan and Egypt meet, is an area of desert glass , thought to have been formed by

912-652: The landing zone . This armament may be in the form of door gunners , or the modification of the helicopter with stub wings and pylons to carry missiles and rocket pods . For example, the Sikorsky S-70 , fitted with the ESSM (External Stores Support System), and the Hip E variant of the Mil Mi-8 can carry as much disposable armament as some dedicated attack helicopters . Medium transport helicopters are generally capable of moving up to

960-454: The sand cat . In pre-historic times the Western desert is thought to have been a semi-arid grassland , home to savanna animals and hunter-gatherers ; evidence of abundant wildlife can be found in the cave paintings of the Gilf Kebir. It is thought that over-grazing and climate change led to desertification and the current geography. Even after this, however, the oases remained inhabited, and

1008-641: The Antiquities Museum at Kharga has artifacts dating back to times before the early Egyptian kingdoms. In ancient times the area was regarded as being under the jurisdiction of the kingdom of Egypt, and Egyptian remains can be found in all the oases. In 525 BC, the Lost Army of Cambyses , a military expedition by the Persian king Cambyses II got lost in the desert while searching for the Oracle of Ammon , at Siwa. In 333

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1056-473: The Bombays built at some stage. When the war with Italy began in June 1940, in the absence of more modern aircraft, 216 Squadron's Bombays were used as night bombers as well as in their principal role as transport aircraft. The design bombload of 250 lb (110 kg) bombs under the fuselage was supplemented by improvised bombs thrown out of the cargo door by hand. The aircraft flew bombing sorties against targets in

1104-595: The Egypt-Libya border to Gazala , Cyrenaica and even El Agheila . The contemporary use of the term refers to the entire desert in Egypt west of the Nile. The Giza Plateau (هضبة الجيزة) is a plateau in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo , Egypt, at the edges of the Western Desert, site of the Fourth Dynasty Giza Necropolis , which includes the Great Pyramids of Khufu , Khafre and Menkaure ,

1152-544: The Great Sand Sea has two large areas with different types of megadunes. The Egyptian sand sea lies parallel to the Calanshio Sand Sea of Libya, with which it is contiguous in the north. The dunes of the Great Sand Sea cover about 10% of the total area of the Western Desert. The Black Desert (‏الصحراء السوداء) is a region of volcano-shaped and widely spaced mounds, distributed along about 30 km (19 mi) in

1200-657: The Oracle of Ammon was visited by Alexander the Great , where he was confirmed as the son of Amun . With the absorption of the kingdom of Egypt into the Roman Empire, the desert region was organized into the province of Libya Inferior, while Cyrenaica became Libya Superior. In time the region came under the jurisdiction of the Byzantines and their successors, the Arabs, Mamluks and Turks. In 1882

1248-594: The Western Desert between the White Desert in the south and the Bahariya Oasis in the north. Most of its mounds are capped by basalt sills, giving them the characteristic black color. The mounds of the Black Desert, up to 100 metres (330 feet) high, vary in size, composition, height, and shape as some are dark consisting of iron quartzite while others are more reddish as its surface rocks consist of iron sandstone. On

1296-543: The Western Desert of 1940 as 390 km (240 mi) wide (i.e. from the Nile to the Libyan border) and 240 km (150 mi) from the Mediterranean to the latitude of Siwa Oasis , while the region to the south was referred to as the Inner Desert. However, during the Second World War the term Western Desert came to apply not only to the coastal desert of Egypt but also to the area fought over in Libya, ranging beyond

1344-565: The area conforms to "the romantic view... the Hollywood scenery of wind-formed dunes with occasional oases fringed with palm" (although such areas do exist in the Sand Sea where dunes are sculpted into fantastic shapes); the area is also the location of a series of oases created where the land dips sufficiently to meet the aquifer. These lie in an arc from Siwa in the north-west near the Libyan border, to Bahariya , Farafra , Dakhla , then Kharga in

1392-459: The base to the top of the head and 19 m (62 ft) wide at its rear haunches. Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD. The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognisable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre ( c.  2558–2532 BC). The Great Sand Sea

1440-653: The basis for war-time operations by such forces as the Long Range Desert Group . This period was also marked by the search for Zerzura , a mythical oasis in the deep desert. During the Second World War , from June 1940 until November 1942, it was the location of the Western Desert Campaign fought between the Axis powers (Italy and Germany) and the Western Allies (principally Britain and Commonwealth countries,

1488-400: The battle front. Military transport helicopters are used in places where the use of conventional aircraft is impossible. For example, the military transport helicopter is the primary transport asset of US Marines deploying from LHDs and LHA . The landing possibilities of helicopters are almost unlimited, and where landing is impossible, for example densely packed jungle, the ability of

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1536-414: The helicopter to hover allows troops to deploy by abseiling and roping . Transport helicopters are operated in assault, medium and heavy classes. Air assault helicopters are usually the smallest of the transport types, and designed to move an infantry squad or section and their equipment. Helicopters in the assault role are generally armed for self-protection both in transit and for suppression of

1584-618: The kingdom of Egypt became a British protectorate, and in 1912 the territory to the east was claimed by Italy as the colony of Libya. In the 20th century the Western Desert became an arena of conflict; during the First World War it was the location of the Senussi Campaign against the British and Italians. The 1930s saw an upsurge of exploration and mapping expeditions by British Army officers, such as Ralph Bagnold and Pat Clayton , laying

1632-464: The largest and most capable of the transport types, currently limited in service to the CH-53 Sea Stallion and related CH-53E Super Stallion , CH-47 Chinook , Mil Mi-26 , and Aérospatiale Super Frelon . Capable of lifting up to 80 troops and moving small Armoured fighting vehicles (usually as slung loads but also internally), these helicopters operate in the tactical transport role in much

1680-420: The middle of Western Desert and increasing living space and prosperity for Egypt's growing population. President El-Sisi specified that 6.4 billion Egyptian pounds ($ 413 million) would be needed for the necessary infrastructure, breathing new life into national hopes for turning the desert green. Originally, Project Toshka was spear-headed by former President Hosni Mubarak , who spent 40 billion Egyptian pounds on

1728-448: The needs of the land forces which they most often support. These roughly correspond to the commercial flight length distinctions: Eurocontrol defines short-haul routes as shorter than 1,500 km (810 nmi), long-haul routes as longer than 4,000 km (2,200 nmi) and medium-haul between. The military glider is an unpowered tactical air transport which has been used in some campaigns to transport troops and/or equipment to

1776-743: The north and west, the Matrouh Governorate administers the area from the Mediterranean south to approx 27°40' N latitude, and the New Valley Governorate from there to the Sudan border, while in the east parts of the Western Desert lie in the Giza , Fayyum , Beni Suef , and Minya Governorates . The region is described by one writer as "a plateau standing on average some 500 feet [150 m] above sea level, barren, rubble- and boulder-strewn, dark brown in colour, occasionally dotted with scrub, and, at first sight, flat". He also states that little of

1824-594: The outskirts of the Black Desert are volcanic hills proving the eruption of dark volcanic dolerite , dating back to the Jurassic period 180 million years ago. The White Desert is a national park , first established as a protected area in 2002. It is located in the Farafra depression , 45 km (28 mi) north of the town of Qsar El Farafra . Part of the park is in the Farafra Oasis ( New Valley Governorate ). The park

1872-526: The production aircraft were built by Short & Harland (owned by Short Brothers and Harland and Wolff ) of Belfast . The complex nature of the Bombay's wing delayed production at Belfast. The first Bombay was not delivered until 1939 and the last 30 were cancelled. The first production Bombay flew in March 1939, with deliveries to No. 216 Squadron RAF based in Egypt beginning in September that year. Although it

1920-559: The same way as small fixed wing turboprop air-lifters. The lower speed, range and increased fuel consumption of helicopters are offset by their not requiring a runway. Western Desert (North Africa) In Egypt , the Western Desert is an area of the Sahara that lies west of the river Nile , up to the Libyan border , and south from the Mediterranean Sea to the border with Sudan . It

1968-505: The south. East of Siwa lies the Qattara Depression , a low-lying area dotted with salt marsh and extending 310 km (190 mi) west to east and 135 km (84 mi) north to south. Further to the east, near the Nile, another depression gives rise to the Fayyum Oasis , a heavily populated area separate from the main Nile valley. To the south, beyond the Bahariya oasis lies the Black Desert , an area of black volcanic hills and dolerite deposits. Beyond this, north of Farafra, lies

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2016-434: The type was finally withdrawn from use in 1944. Data from The British Bomber since 1914 General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Military transport aircraft Military transport aeroplanes are defined in terms of their range capability as strategic airlift or tactical airlift to reflect

2064-455: The wings leading to aileron reversal . This led to an extensive research program at Bristol which resulted in a wing design with a stressed metal skin rivetted to an internal framework consisting of multiple spars and the ribs . This was the basis of the Bombay's wing, which had seven spars, with high-tensile steel flanges and alclad webs. The aircraft had a twin-tail and a fixed tailwheel undercarriage . The aircraft's crew consisted of

2112-467: Was about to assume command of Eighth Army from General Claude Auchinleck who had been removed as Commander-in-Chief Middle East and had been directing the Army directly after dismissing its commander Neil Ritchie . His death opened the way for General Bernard Montgomery to take over. Bombays evacuated over 2,000 wounded during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, and one crew was credited with carrying 6,000 casualties from Sicily and Italy before

2160-403: Was known historically as the "Libyan Desert", taking its name from Ancient Libya , which lay between the Nile and Cyrenaica. With the formation of the state of Libya , the term "Western Desert" has come to describe the part of the Sahara in Egypt. To the Ancient Greeks, the term Libya described the whole Saharan littoral west of the Nile to the Atlas Mountains . In Roman times, the term Libya

2208-459: Was limited to Cyrenaica and the region between there and Egypt, organized as the provinces of Libya Superior and Libya Inferior. The term Libyan Desert then applied to the area to the south of these provinces. This became a misnomer during colonial times when Cyrenaica and the land to the west was organized as the Italian colony of Libya in 1911, and the term Western Desert used to describe the area within Egypt became more common. Playfair described

2256-456: Was outclassed as a bomber for the European theatre, it saw some service with British-based 271 Squadron ferrying supplies to the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. In June 1940, French pilot Jean Demozay used an abandoned Bombay to ferry himself and 15 troops from France to England, after which he became an ace with the RAF. The Bombay's main service was in the Middle East , particularly with 216 Squadron, which operated most of

2304-405: Was successful and an order for 80 was placed as the Bombay in July 1937. These differed from the prototype in having more powerful (1,010 hp (750 kW)) engines driving three-bladed Rotol variable-pitch propellers , discarding the wheel spats fitted to the undercarriage main wheels in the prototype. As Bristol's Filton factory was busy building the more urgent Blenheim light bomber,

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