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The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, heavy bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. It was widely used in the first two years of World War II, before being replaced as a bomber by much larger four-engine designs like the Avro Lancaster.

The Wellington used a unique geodetic construction designed by the famous Barnes Wallis for airships and used to build the single-engined Vickers Wellesley bomber. The fuselage was built up from a number of steel channel-beams that were formed into a large network. This gave the plane tremendous strength because any one of the stringers could support some of the weight from even the opposite side of the plane. Blowing out one side's beams would still leave the plane as a whole intact. Wellingtons with huge holes cut out of them continued to return home when other planes would not have survived.

However, the construction system also have a distinct disadvantage, in that it took considerably longer to complete a Wellington than for other designs using monocoque construction techniques. Nevertheless, in the late 1930s Vickers succeeded in building Wellingtons at a rate of one per day at Weybridge and 50 per month at Chester. Peak wartime production in 1942 saw monthly rates of 70 achieved at Weybridge, 130 at Chester and 102 at Blackpool.

The Wellington went through a total of sixteen variants during its production life plus a further two training conversions after the war. The first model was the Wellington Mk I, powered a pair of 1,050 hp Bristol Pegasus engines, of which 180 were built. The prototype first flew on June 15, 1936 and it entered service with No. 9 Squadron RAF in October 1938. Improvements to the turrets resulted in 183 Mk IA Wellingtons and this complement of aircraft equipped the RAF Bomber Command heavy bomber squadrons at the outbreak of war. The Wellington was out-numbered by its twin-engined contemporaries, the Handley Page Hampden and the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, but would ultimately outlast them in productive service. The first RAF bombing attack of the war was made by Wellingtons of No. 9 and No. 149 Squadrons, along with Bristol Blenheims, on German shipping at Brunsbüttel. Wellingtons also participated in the first night raid on Berlin in December 1939.

The first main production variant was the Mk IC which added waist guns to the Mk IA and a total of 2,685 were produced. The Mk IC had a crew of six; a pilot, radio operator, navigator/bomb aimer, observer/nose gunner, tail gunner and waist gunner. The Mk II was identical with the exception of the powerplant; utilising the 1,145 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin X engine instead—585 were produced at Weybridge.

The next significant variant was the Mk III which featured the 1,375 hp Bristol Hercules III or XI engine and a four-gun tail turret. A total of 1,519 Mk IIIs were built and became mainstays of Bomber Command through 1941. The 220 Mk IV Wellingtons used the 1,200 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engine and were flown by two Polish squadrons.

There followed a number a experimental and conversion variants:

• Mk V Three were built, designed for pressurised, high-altitude operations using turbocharged Hercules VIII engines.
• Mk VI Pressurised with a long wingspan and 1,600 hp Merlin R6SM engines, 63 were produced and were operated by 109 Squadron and as Gee radio navigation trainers.
• Mk VII Single aircraft, built as a test-bed for the 40mm Vickers S machine gun turret.
• Mk VIII Mk IC conversion for Coastal Command service. Roles included reconnaissance, anti-submarine and anti-shipping attack. Included the D.W.1 which was equipped with degaussing hoops for detonating floating magnetic mines.
• Mk IX Mk IC conversion for troop transport.

The most widely produced variant was the Mk X of which 3,804 were built. It was similar to the Mk III except for the 1,675 hp Hercules VI or XVI powerplant and a fuselage structure of light alloy, instead of steel.. The Mk X was the basis for a number of Coastal Command conversions; the Mk XI and Mk XII were maritime versions armed with torpedoes and with a chin radome housing the ASV radar. The Mk XIII was another maritime variant with a nose turret and mast radar instead of chin radome. The Mk XIV restored the radome and added rocket rails to the wings.

Finally there was the Mk XV and Mk XVI which were unarmed conversions of the Mk IC for transport service. Two trainer models were also built or converted; the T.10 and the T.19, the latter for navigation training. The Wellington remained in use as a trainer until 1953.

While the Wellington was superceded in the European Theatre, it remained in operational service for much of the war in the Middle East and Far East theatres. It was particularly effective in North Africa, where it could fly faster than most of the Italian fighters, and carried a heavier bomb load than the Italians.

The number of Wellingtons built totalled 11,461 of all versions.