Aviation Book – “One of our Aircraft”, Brooklands Wellington Story

Fantastic Quiller Press hardback aviation book by Robin Holmes: “One of our Aircraft”. Contains 190 fact filled pages of text and black and white photos about the story of the Brooklands Vickers Wellington, recovered from Loch Ness.

Loch Ness is the most avidly watched body of water anywhere in the world. During the ‘season’ bus loads of tourists alight at Urquhart Castle to stand and gaze out over the loch in the hope of catching sight of the monster. An old log or the wake from a passing boat can cause fingers to point and adrenalin to pump. Seventy metres below the surface on the soft peaty bottom lay the body of a monster that died many years ago. In places its skin had rotted away to reveal its shiny bones and its life blood has long since drained into the silt, but it was not Nessie. Its skin was fabric, its bones duralumin, its blood hydraulic fluid and its name was Wimpy. Our monster that lay so peacefully on the bottom of Loch Ness for forty-four years is ‘one of our aircraft’ that went missing on New Year’s Eve 1940, a Wellington bomber N2980 known affectionately to everyone during the war as a Wimpy. Out of a total of 11,461 produce only two Wellingtons now remain. One, a trainer that saw no active service, resides at the RAF Museum, Hendon. The other, a battle scarred verteran of the skies over Germany, lay quietly at the bottom of Loch Ness until 1985 when it was recovered by the Loch Ness Wellington Association Ltd (a creation of the author) and returned to its birthplace at Weybridge. This is its story.