Vickers Vimy

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The Vickers Vimy was a British heavy bomber aircraft of the post-World War I era. Designed by Reginald Kirshaw 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. It was named after the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

By October 1918 only three aircraft had been delivered to the Royal Air Force. The Vimy only reached full in-service status in July 1919 when it entered service with the RAF in Egypt. The aircraft was the main heavy bomber force for most of the 1920s. The final aircraft (a training aircraft based in Egypt) was withdrawn in 1933.

Contents 1 Service 2 Vimy Commercial 3 Vimy replica 4 Variants 5 Military Operators 6 Units using the Vimy 7 Civil Operators 8 Specifications (Vimy) 9 External links 10 Related content

[edit] 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.

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 G-EAOU is preserved in a museum in Smith's hometown Adelaide, Australia);
• In 1920 Lieutenant Colonel Pierre van Ryneveld and Major Christopher Quintin-Brand attempted to make the first England to South Africa flight. They left Brooklands on 4 February 1920 in the Vimy G-UABA named Silver Queen. They landed safely at Heliopolis, but as they continued the flight to Wadi Halfa they were forced to land due to engine overheating with 80 miles still to go. A second Vimy was loaned to the pair by the RAF at Heliopolis (and named Silver Queen II). This second aircraft continued to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia where it was badly damaged when it failed to take-off. Rynevald and Brand then borrowed a Airco DH.9 to continue the journey to Cape Town. They were disqualified as winners but the South African government awarded them £5,000 each.

[edit] Vimy Commercial

The Vimy Commercial was a civilian version of the Vimy with a larger diameter fuselage (largely of spruce plywood) was developed and 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. 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. Forty of the forty-three built were delivered to China but most remained in their crates unused.

The prototype G-EAAV entered the 1920 race to Cape Town and left Brooklands on 24 January 1920 but crashed at Tabora, Tanganyika on 27 February.

Fifty-five military transport versions of the Vimy Commercial were built for the RAF as the Vernon.

[edit] 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 led by Lang Kidby and Peter Macmillan and this aircraft recreated the three great pioneering Vimy flights: 1994 England to Australia flown by Lang Kidby and Peter MacMillan, 2000 England to South Africa flown by Mark Rebholz and John LaNoue, and in 2005 Alcock and Brown's 1919 Atlantic crossing was recreated, flown by Steve Fossett and Mark Rebholz.

[edit] Variants

• F.B.27 Vimy : Prototypes. Four built.
• F.B.27A Vimy II : Twin-engined heavy bomber aircraft for the RAF.
• Vimy Ambulance : Air ambulance version for the RAF.
• Vimy Commercial : Civilian transport version. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII piston engines.

[edit] Military Operators

• United Kingdom.
  • Royal Air Force (Vimy, Vimy Ambulance & Vernon).

[edit] Units using the Vimy

• No. 7 Squadron RAF
• No. 9 Squadron RAF
• No. 24 Squadron RAF
• No. 45 Squadron RAF
• No. 58 Squadron RAF
• No. 70 Squadron RAF
• No. 99 Squadron RAF
• No. 100 Squadron RAF
• No. 216 Squadron RAF
• No. 500 Squadron RAF

[edit] Civil Operators

• The Government of China (Vimy Commercial).
• Grand Express Aerienes (Vimy Commercial).
• Imperial Airways (Vimy Commercial).
• Instone and Co Ltd (Vimy Commercial).
• The Government of Spain (Vimy).

[edit] Specifications (Vimy)

General characteristics

• Length: 43 ft 7 in (13.27 m)
• Wingspan: 68 ft 1 in (20.75 m)
• Height: 15 ft 8 in (4.76 m)
• Wing area: ft² (m²)
• Empty weight: 7,104 lb (3,222 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 10,884 lb (4,937 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII , 360 hp (270 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 100 mph (165 km/h)
• Range: 900 miles (1,448 km)
• Service ceiling: 7,000 ft (2,135 m)
• Power/mass: 0.07 hp/lb (0.11 kW/kg)

Armament

• 1x .303 (7.7 mm) Lewis gun in Scarff ring in nose and 1 in Scarff ring in mid-fuselage
• 2,476 lb (1,123 kg) of bombs

[edit] External links

• RAF Museum
• Alcock and Brown's aeroplane at the London Science Museum
• Vickers Vimy online collection - State Library of NSW

[edit] Related content

Related development

• Vickers Vernon
• Vickers Virginia

 

Designation sequence

F.B.5 - E.F.B.6 - F.B.7 - F.B.8 - F.B.9 Vimy - Vernon -Vickers Victoria - Vickers Virginia