Main menu	Larger image	Next Gratton photo Gratton menu
08/15/2008. Originally built as the Type 246 private venture contender to the 1931 Air Ministry Specification G.4/31 for a single-engine, general-purpose bombing and torpedo-carrying landplane. Powered by the 750 hp Bristol Pegasus IIIM3 nine-cylinder radial piston engine and carrying the 'Class B' registration PVO-9, the aircraft was flown for the first time by Maurice 'Mutt' Summers from Brooklands, Surrey, on June 19, 1935. On the 25th of the next month the aircraft made a forced belly landing when the left hand leg of the undercarriage could not be lowered completely. While the slightly damaged aircraft was repaired, the type was selected for production as the Wellesley, therefore extensive modifications were incorporated to make the aircraft the Type 281 pre-production aircraft. The open cockpits were covered, the original manual operated undercarriage was replaced by a hydraulic operated one, and the engine was replaced by the 820 hp Pegasus X. Registered as K7556 the aircraft was flown again in the autumn of 1935. In 1936 the aircraft was modified to Type 287 Wellesley Mk.I production standard, fitted with the 950 hp Pegasus XX.