Old Fashioned Wimpey

DESCRIPTION: "There's an old-fashioned Wimpey with old-fashioned wings, With a fuselage tattered and torn... Still, she's quite safe and sound, 'Cos she won't leave the ground... For the Huns up above were all taught how to love That old-fashioned Wimpey of mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook); supposedly sung in 1941
KEYWORDS: technology humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, p. 152, "Old Fashioned Wimpey" (1 short text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That Old-Fashioned Mother of Mine" (tune) and references there
cf. "Ops in a Wimpey" (song about the Wellington bomber)
NOTES [201 words]: The "Wimpey" was the Vickers Wellington bomber, the mainstay of the British Bomber command for the first few years of World War II, until the newer four-engined bombers took its place. For more about this bomber and its distinguished service, see "Ops in a Wimpey."
The irony of this song is that the Wellington was anything but "old-fashioned" at the time it was put into service; it featured "revolutionary geodetic construction," according to Munson, p. 159 -- a technique that was hard to apply to the wings, according to Gunston, p. 474, so it was truly a new design. And, relatively speaking, it was "safe and sound" in the air, because it could absorb a "fantastic amount of punishment" (Munson, p. 159). Which is probably why this particular machine came back despite its "fuselage tattered and torn."
Admittedly the Wellington could be called "old-fashioned" compared to the heavy four-engine bombers that followed, such as the Lancaster and the Halifax. On the flip side, the Wellington stayed in service after at least one of the heavies, the Short Stirling, was found to be utterly inadequate. I don't know if a plane can have a last laugh, but the Wellington certainly would have earned one. - RBW
Bibliography

Gunston: Bill Gunston, The Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Salamander Books, 1988, 2002
Munson: Kenneth Munson, Aircraft of World War II, second edition, Doubleday, 1972

Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL152

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