---
title: This is what YOU are making... A Mighty Machine of British Workmanship (Vickers-Armstrongs Wellington II)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-vickers-wellington-ii-mighty-machine-british-workmanship-1939/
description: A cutaway technical drawing of the Vickers-Armstrongs Wellington II bomber, with a specification box (270 mph, 3,000 miles, eight .303 Brownings).
section: Collection
---

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3. This is what YOU are making... A Mighty Machine of British Workmanship

[![This is what YOU are making... A Mighty Machine of British Workmanship, 1939 UK poster: A cutaway technical drawing](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-vickers-wellington-ii-mighty-machine-british-workmanship-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-vickers-wellington-ii-mighty-machine-british-workmanship-1939.jpg)

# This is what YOU are making... A Mighty Machine of British Workmanship (Vickers-Armstrongs Wellington II)

A cutaway technical drawing of the Vickers-Armstrongs Wellington II bomber, with a specification box (270 mph, 3,000 miles, eight .303 Brownings), sits beside an empty framed panel headed 'This is what YOU are making'. The headline 'A Mighty Machine of British Workmanship' attaches a virtue phrase to the aircraft (glittering generalities), and the 'YOU' casts each factory worker as the maker of the bomber (identity fusion).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
This is what YOU
are making . . . . .

THE VICKERS-ARMSTRONGS WELLINGTON II
(two 1,145 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin X motors)

Maximum Speed 270 m.p.h.
Range 3,000 miles.
ARMAMENT
8 BROWNING .303's

THE AEROPLANE Copyright
[drawing signed: Clark]

MINISTRY OF AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION

A MIGHTY MACHINE of BRITISH WORKMANSHIP

PRINTED FOR H.M.S.O. BY JOHNSON RIDDLE & CO., LTD., LONDON, S.E.23

[Plus the drawing's lettered callouts and a caption on the geodetic main spar and nacelle fixings; not transcribed in full.]
```

[← Venereal Diseases - Tomorrow's Citizen](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-venereal-diseases-tomorrows-citizen-mount-1939/) [Victory Delayed →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-victory-delayed-laura-knight-1939/)

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