Vickers Vimy

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Vickers Vimy / Vimy Commercial
Vickers Vimy
Type: Bomber , airliner
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Vickers

First flight:

November 30, 1917

Commissioning:

July 1919

Production time:

1918 to 1925

Number of pieces:

239

The Vickers Vimy FB27 was a heavy British bomber of the First World War . The aircraft developed by RK Pierson and built by Vickers was intended for air strikes on targets in Germany . With a Vimy, two pilots made the non-stop crossing of the Atlantic for the first time in June 1919 . They flew 3667 km in 16 hours 12 minutes, i.e. at an average speed of about 225 km / h over the ground.

After the war, the Vimy was developed into a commercial aircraft and was named Vimy Commercial .

history

Vickers Vimy Commercial, October 1921
Vickers Vimy, side view, 1919

The first flight took place on November 30, 1917. The first aircraft were delivered to the squadrons in July 1919, and they were no longer used in the First World War. The 58 Squadron - from February 1, 1920 70 Squadron - flew the Vimy from July 1919 to November 1922, first in Egypt, then in Mesopotamia. The 45 Squadron in Mesopotamia was only equipped with the Vimy for a short time (July 1921 to April 1922). The longest served the Vimy with the 216 Squadron in Egypt (from June 1922 to October 1926). It was replaced by the advancement Vickers Virginia . In Northern Ireland it remained in service until 1929. Different variants with the designations Mk.I to Mk.IV were produced.

The civilian version Vimy Commercial was produced from 1919, mainly for export. It first flew from Joy Green Airfield in Kent on April 13, 1919 with the military registration K107. Later she got the civil license plate G-EAAV.

production

The exact production figures of the Vimy can no longer be determined because many orders were canceled at the end of the war. The following production figures can be verified:

Acceptance of Vickers Vimy by the RAF:

Manufacturer version 1919 1920 1919/1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 total Serial
Morgan & Co. Vimy 41               41 F3146-F3186
Vickers Weybridge     100           100 F8596-F8645; F9146-F9195
RAE Mk.IV 6th 4th             10 H651-H660
Westland 1 1             2 H5081 – H5082
Vickers Mk.IV             25th 5 30th J7238-J7247; J7440-J7454; J7701-J7705
Vimy Commercial Ambulance       1 2 2     5 J6855; J6904-J6905; J7143-J7144
total   48 5 100 1 2 2 25th 5 188  

43 aircraft were built by Vimy Commercial. China ordered 40 aircraft manufactured by Vickers between April 1920 and February 1921. In China, 20 Vimy had been built by 1924, five of which had been lost by that time. The remaining 20 remained in their transport boxes.

Record flights

Vickers Vimy by Ross Smith and Keith Smith

With the Vimy made many first long-distance flights and records, including the first non-stop - Atlantic crossing . John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown took off from Newfoundland on June 14, 1919 and landed nose first in a bog in Ireland on June 15, 1919 . Your plane is in the London Science Museum today .

Ross Macpherson Smith and Keith Macpherson Smith were the first to fly from London to Australia in several stages in 1919 . On February 4, 1920, Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand flew from London to South Africa . Steve Fossett flew across the Atlantic in a replica Vimy in 2005.

Military use

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Technical data (Vimy Mk.I)

Three-sided tear
Parameter Data
crew 3
length 13.27 m
span 20.75 m
height 4.76 m
Wing area 123.5 m²
Empty mass 3222 kg
Takeoff mass 5670 kg
Top speed 166 km / h at 6,500 ft (approx. 1,980 m) altitude
Service ceiling 2135 m
Range 1448 km
Engines two 12-cylinder V-engines Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII , 270 kW (367 hp)
Armament 2 × 7.7 mm Lewis machine guns (1 in the front of the aircraft, 1 in the middle of the aircraft) and up to 1123 kg bombs in the internal weapon bay

swell

See also

literature

  • CF Andrews, Eric B. Morgan: Vickers Aircraft since 1908. Second edition, Putnam, London 1988, ISBN 0-85177-815-1 .
  • AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919-1972. Volume III. revised second edition, Putnam, London 1988, ISBN 0-85177-818-6 .
  • Francis K. Mason: The British Bomber Since 1914. Putnam Aeronautical Books, London 1994, ISBN 0-85177-861-5 .
  • Peter McMillan: The Vimy Flies Again. National Geographic, Volume 187, No. 5, May 1995, pp. 4-43.
  • Jim Winchester (Ed.): Vickers Vimy. Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes. (Aviation Factfile), Grange Books plc, London 2004, ISBN 1-84013-641-3 .

Web links

Commons : Vickers Vimy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Owen Thetford: By Day and by Night - Vickers Vimy. In: Airplane Monthly. December 1992, p. 38.
  2. ↑ Vic Flintham: Truculent Tribes, Turbulent Skies. The RAF in the Near and Middle East 1919-1939. o. O., 2015, p. 50 ff.
  3. ↑ https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/vickers-vimy . BAE names 147 aircraft that - in addition to license builds - were manufactured by Vickers Bexleyheath, Crayford and Weybridge.
  4. ^ Thompson, Dennis: Royal Air Force Aircraft J1-J9999. Tonbridge 1987.
  5. ^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft Since 1919. Volume 3, p. 201 ff., P. 592 f.
  6. ^ Lennart Andersson: A History of Chinese Aviation. Taipei 2008, p. 13, p. 287.