Not "Flying Coffin", but "Flying Suitcase", because of the narrow, deep, slab sided fuselage. The whole fuselage was no wider than the single seat cockpit. Apparently it was quite fast and manoueverable. However, the narrow fuselage made it impossible to add to its armament, limited its bomb load, and made it unsuited to use in other roles (as happened to its contemporaries, the Wellington and Whitley).
The narrow fuselage also meant that if the pilot was hit, the only way another crew member could reach the controls was to fold his seat back to the rear, pull him out backwards and climb over him. Difficult but just about possible at altitude, impossible at low level. The only role it was used in apart from bombing was torpedo bombing, (the bomb bay would just take a 21" torpedo, with the bomb doors modified) and losses were then very high, probably for just that reason. Not so much coffin as watery grave.
Last edited by oxenos; 2nd Jan 2009 at 22:27.