Vickers Vimy
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The Vickers Vimy was a British heavy bomber aircraft of the World War I era. Designed by R.K. Pierson to be capable of attacking targets in Germany, and produced by the Vickers Company in Leighton Buzzard, it first flew on 30 November 1917. Only token numbers arrived in France before the end of the war and production switched to a passenger variant, called the Vimy-Commercial. It was named after the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Service
The Vimy served with Royal Air Force in the Middle East from 1919 until 1925, when it was replaced by the Vickers Virginia, and in Northern Ireland until 1929. A civilian version, the Vimy-Commercial, with a larger diameter fuselage largely of spruce plywood, was produced in 1919, mainly for foreign customers. A Chinese order for 100 is particularly noteworthy although a failure to pay interest from April 1922 probably led to the order not being completed.The Vimy-Commercial first flew from Joyce Green airfield in Kent on 13 April 1919 with the military serial K107. It became G-EAAV on the civil register.
The Vimy was used in many pioneering flights, including the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by Alcock and Brown in June 1919 (their aircraft is preserved in the London Science Museum);
- In 1919, the Australian government offered £10,000 for the first All-Australian crew to fly an aeroplane from England to Australia. Keith Macpherson Smith, Ross Macpherson Smith and two other men completed the journey in Darwin on December 10 1919 (their aircraft is preserved in a museum in Smith´s hometown Adelaide, Australia);
- In 1922 van Rynevald and Brand attempted to win the first England to South Africa flight. Their Vimy crashed in Africa, Rynevald and Brand changed to another aircraft and completed the race, but were disqualified as winners.
Vimy replica
In 1969 a Vimy replica was built by the Vintage Aircraft Flying Association at Brooklands (this aircraft is now displayed at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London). A second flyable Vimy replica was built in 1994 by an Australian/American team and in the 1990s this aircraft recreated two of the three great pioneering Vimy flights - England to Australia and England to South Africa. In 2005 the Atlantic crossing was recreated, flown by the aviator, Steve Fossett.
Specifications (Vimy)
External links
Related content
| Aviation in World War I |
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| Aces | Aircraft of the Entente Powers | Aircraft of the Central Powers | Zeppelins | |
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