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From Combat Aircraft of the World: from 1909 to the present, edited by John W. R. Taylor (c) 1969, pp. 413-414:
Short Stirling
The Stirling was the first of the three heavy strategic bombers initiated by the British Air Staff in 1936 and which during World War II formed the backbone of Bomber Command’s offensive against Germany.
Designed to Air Ministry Specification B.12/36, it was a four-engined monoplane of all-metal stressed-skin construction. The specification placed a limit on wing span so that the bomber could be housed in standard RAF hangars; this resulted in a wing of comparatively low aspect ratio, as the designers increased the chord to obtain the necessary wing area. In turn, this low aspect ratio resulted in relatively low ceiling, which proved a serious handicap in action. The wing construction was generally similar to that of the Sunderland, consisting of a main spar torsion-box, to which the leading- and trailing-edge assemblies were attached. Gouge-type flaps were fitted inboard of the ailerons.
The fuselage was a slab-sided monocoque structure, with the bomb-bay occupying almost all of the interior below the wing. The bay held a maximum load of 14,000 lb, which could be carried 590 miles. With the load reduced to 3,500 lb, the range was increased to 2,010 miles. The bay was, however, divided into sections, which meant that the heaviest bomb which could be accommodated was a 4,000-pounder. This limited the usefulness of the Stirling as a warplane.
The shoulder position of the wing resulted in a tall and very complicated main undercarriage, and a correspondingly complicated retraction sequence, into the nacelles of the inboard engines.
Defensive armament consisted of two 0.303 Browning machine-guns in each of the nose and dorsal power-operated turrets, and four guns in a power-operated tail turret.
The two prototype Stirlings were each powered by four 1,375-hp Bristol Hercules II engines, but production Mk I aircraft had 1,595-hp Hercules XI engines. They went into service in August 1940, with No. 7 Squadron, constituting the first four-engined RAF bomber squadron of the war. Their initial sortie was made on 10 February 1941, when three Stirlings dropped fifty-six 500-lb. bombs on oil storage tanks at Rotterdam. In that same year, Stirlings pioneered the use of an early form of Oboe blind bombing device, during attacks on German warships at Brest.
The Stirling Mk II was a version powered by Wright Cyclone engines; not many of this type were built.
The Mk III was a major improvement, powered by 1,650-hp Bristol Hercules XVI engines, and incorporated a new type of dorsal gun turret. This was the standard version in Bomber Command during 1943 and 1944.
The Stirling Mk IV was a version adapted for glider towing and transport duties, retaining only the dorsal gun-turret, and the Mk V was a special unarmed transport capable of carrying 40 troops.
Production of Stirling bombers exceeded 1,630 aircraft, made up of 756 Mk Is and more than 875 Mk IIIs.
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