The Vickers Vimy was one of the most iconic bombers developed during WW1 and it went on
to become one of the most iconic aircraft of the interwar period. In July of 1917 the
British Air Board made the decision to cancel all existing orders for experimental heavy bombers.
This was done as somewhat of a kneejerk reaction to a German raid on London the previous month,
as they felt that none of their existing projects were ambitious enough for retaliation.
Cancelling all of your major bomber projects during a global armed conflict may not have
been the wisest decision, and thankfully sanity prevailed when the Controller of the
Technical Department convinced them to place an order for 100 Handley Page O/400 bombers.
Along with this, orders were also placed for some other Handley Page bomber prototypes,
as well as some examples from Vickers. Vickers had been experimenting with the
concept of twin-engine aircraft since the beginning of the war.
Their first prototype, dubbed the E.F.B.7 and designed to carry a one-pounder gun,
was one of the first twin-engine military aircraft to fly when it first took off in 1915.
It never went into production however, as its original Gnome engines were in short supply
and the replacements were too underpowered. It was then redesigned into the second aircraft, the
E.F.B.8, which was smaller than its predecessor and was only armed with a single Lewis gun.
Although neither aircraft was produced beyond a prototype, their designer Rex Pierson gained
valuable experience from their development. This paid off In 1917 when it was suggested
that Vickers should attempt to develop a heavy bomber around the Hispano Suiza engine, of which
there was a surplus, and it should be built to the same specification as the Handley Page O series.
Pierson met with Maj J. C Buchanan of the Air Board at their headquarters,
and rapidly drew up prototype proposals on some scrap paper. Not long after this,
some actual -detailed- designs were drawn up, and construction of the prototype began in earnest.
The first prototype was completed in less than four months and was designated the Vickers F.B.27.
It was designed to accommodate a crew of 3: a pilot and two gunners. Its two Hispano
Suiza engines produced 200hp each, and it was designed to carry approximately 2400lbs of bombs
with an endurance of 3 ½ hours. It flew for the first time on the 30th of November at Joyce Green,
piloted by Gordon Bell, and following several successful flights it went to Martlesham Heath
for official trials in January 1918. During these trials it impressed officials by lifting a greater
load than the Handley Page bomber despite having less powerful engines. Unfortunately,
these engines suffered from persistent mechanical problems and the prototype was taken back to Joyce
Green for modification work in April – as a side note, it was around this time that the
aircraft was also officially named the Vimy. Mechanical problems and bad luck quickly became
a bit of a recurring theme for the Vimy during its development. Three more prototypes were
built during 1918, and of the four total, only one wanted to behave in a way that
didn’t endanger the pilots and the crew. The second prototype appeared in early 1918.
It was powered by a pair of liquid cooled Sunbeam Maori engines that produced 260hp.
Along with new engines it also differed from the first prototype by having new elevators,
ailerons, and tailplanes, and it also had a different ply covering on the fuselage. It was
tested at Joyce Green in April, and it was found to have issues with its engine cooling systems,
despite this it was still sent to Martlesham Heath for further testing…where it was promptly written
off in a crash due to engine failure. The third prototype arrived not long after
the second, and it was powered by a pair of Fiat A-12bis engines that put out 300hp each. Again,
this aircraft featured several structural improvements over the first prototype. It had
new engine nacelles, the nose of the fuselage was re-designed, it featured centrifugal fuel pumps
powered by airscrews, and its wings had a greater dihedral of 3 degrees. At Martlesham it suffered
test delays as the aircrews powering the fuel pumps had a habit of cracking, and then the tests
were abruptly cut short when the aircraft took off with live bombs for a trip to the bombing range,
stalled during said take-off, and then promptly exploded when it crashed.
The fourth prototype was powered by the Rolls-Royce Eagle Mk VIII.
Aside from some modifications to the rudders, its airframe was virtually identical to that
of the previous prototype, however its fuel load had been greatly increased. It now had
a fuel capacity of 452 gallons compared to just 92 gallons on the original prototype,
albeit this did come at the cost of the internal bomb bay. Unlike the previous two planes,
this one actually did quite well at trials. It was able to fly at over 100mph near the ground
with a loaded total weight of 12,500lbs, and its fuel load gave it an endurance of 11 hours.
A fifth prototype had also been planned, powered by the new Liberty engine,
however this was curtailed by the cessation of Liberty engine deliveries and the destruction of
the prototype during a hangar fire in 1919. Despite some of the prototypes boiling their
engines or exploding, Vickers had received an initial order for 150 aircraft back in March of
1918. This order was quickly expanded by a further 200 units, and counting contracts with other firms
this order would grow to over 1,100 various units by the end of the conflict. Large scale production
of the Vimy was undertaken by Vickers, Morgan, Westland, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and
several other smaller firms. During 1918 priority was placed on the production of anti-submarine
variants of the Vimy, designed to carry two torpedoes, and once this order was complete
then a night bomber was to be produced. However, by the signing of the armistice, Vickers had only
built 13 aircraft, and only one Vimy had reached France, though it was never used operationally.
With the outbreak of peace there was of course a drastic reduction in orders,
however some production still continued, and the final total built under wartime contracts came to
112 aircraft. These aircraft varied in powerplant arrangements and bomb-carrying capacity,
however the majority were completed with the Rolls Royce Eagle engine; some were completed
with the Fiat engines, but a number of these were also later converted over to the Eagle.
The production Vimy, much like the prototype, followed a lot of the conventional design
trends of the time. It was an equal span biplane with a wire-braced wing structure.
The front fuselage was constructed of steel tubing and the rear fuselage was mostly wood
with steel end fittings. The tail was also a biplane, and the rudders and ailerons of
the aircraft were aerodynamically balanced by extensions that were forward of the hinge points.
After some slight tweaking, the Rolls Royce Eagle suited the Vimy perfectly,
which would have been a refreshing change after the earlier prototype’s mishaps, and on one test
flight the Vimy hit a top speed of 112mph. Like the prototype it had a crew of three,
and the two gunners each operated a single 303 calibre Lewis gun,
one in the nose, and one mounted on a Scarff ring in the central section of the fuselage.
The first bomber squadron to receive the Vimy was No.58 Squadron, then based in Egypt.
The first aircraft arrived in July of 1920 and they replaced the Squadrons existing compliment
of Handley Page bombers. In 1921, No 45 and 216 Squadrons – also based in Egypt – were
equipped with Vimys, and those operated by 216 would become famous for operating
the Cairo-Baghdad air mail route. Back home, the Vimys operated by D-flight of No
100 Squadron were the only twin-engine bombers in service with the RAF in 1922. They would form the
foundation of No.7 squadron, which would fly Vimys until being replaced by Vickers Virginias in 1925.
In 1924 Britain’s home-based bomber strength would triple with the formation of No.9 and 58 Squadron,
the original 58 Squadron in Egypt be renamed to No.70. During the 1920s the Vimy would
see service with 8 RAF Squadrons, often having their service life extended with reconditioned
engines and parts, and indeed when the Eagle engines themselves wore out they were sometimes
replaced by relatively less worn out Britsol or Armstrong-Siddely engines. Within training units,
the Vimy would carry on its military service through a large part of the 1930s. Along with
being used as a flight training aircraft, it was also used as a parachute trainer.
Though its career with the RAF was considered uneventful, the Vimy would be immortalised by a
series of successive long-range flights, the first of these was the non-stop crossing of the Atlantic
that was flown by John Alcock and Arthur Brown. The Vimy selected was the thirteenth and last to
be manufactured at Vickers Crayford factory before production moved to Weybridge. For this flight,
it was given to engineer Maxwell-Muller for modification. All of the military equipment
was removed and replaced with extra fuel tanks, this took the total capacity from 516
to 865 gallons and would give an optimum range of 2,440 miles. It was given special radio equipment,
an intercom for the pilots to communicate more easily, and an improved heating system.
Alcock and Brown took off at 1:45pm on the 14th of June 1919 from St Johns in Newfoundland;
nearly 16 hours later they would land in a bog near Clifden, Ireland.
From the beginning it was anything but an easy flight. The added fuel load made takeoff a
perilous affair, with the Vimy just clearing the treetops on its way out from St Johns.
Four hours later things became considerably more dangerous when the wind-driven electric
generator failed, which deprived them of heating and radio contact. Freezing and unable to easily
communicate, they then had to fly through thick fog which made navigation temporarily impossible,
they then had to endure snowstorms that drenched them and then threatened to ice up the plane,
and then a good portion of the journey had to be managed with a broken trim control.
The altitude flown varied depending on the weather, temperature, and how much control
Alcock had on the battered Vimy. At one point they lost control of the plane in a
particularly nasty patch of cloud and dropped from 4000 feet in a descending spiral, Alcock
regained control at the last moment and pulled the aircraft level a mere 65 feet above waves.
Despite the atrocious weather, the Vimy arrived not far off from its intended destination.
Unfortunately, it was partially wrecked during landing. Brown and Alcock thought they were
landing on a green field, but in fact it was a green bog, thankfully their seatbelts held, and
they weren’t flung from the impact. Their journey had covered 1890 miles, 15 hours 57 minutes of
flight time, with an average speed of 115 mph. The next famous flight to involve the Vimy was
initiated by the offer of a $10,000 prize by the Australian government, the prize was to be awarded
for the first flight by Australians from Britain to Australia. The conditions were that it had to
be completed within a time-frame of 30 days, and it had to be done before the end of 1919.
Six competitors entered into the race, but it would be the Vimy that claimed the prize.
Once again the Vimy was selected and suitably modified by Maxwell-Mueller. The pilots chosen
were the Smith brothers, Ross and Keith, who were members of the Australian Flying Corps.
Due to the huge distances involved, a considerable amount of pre-flight planning had to be done:
petrol, oil, and essential stores had to be laid down at strategic points en route,
and landing grounds had to be carefully surveyed – especially in the more remote regions.
As a result of this biggest modification made to the aircraft was the provision of more
space for additional stores, just in-case some of the stops had supply issues.
The Smith brothers took off on the morning of the 12th of November 1919 at around 8am. Remarkably
most of the journey was made without any major problems, the most common issue was
the risk of the aircraft getting bogged down on the more tropical airfields. The worst
incident occurred in Surabaya, when the aircraft became so utterly bogged that the locals had to
fashion an impromptu runway from baboo taken from natural groves and indeed salvaged from huts.
On the 10th of December 1919, their Vimy was sighted approaching Australia by HMAS Sydney,
100 miles from Darwin. Just after 4pm that day the Smith Brothers successfully landed at Fannie Bay,
from which they would fly the final leg to Melbourne and win the race. The Smith
brothers were received as national heroes and received knighthoods for their exploits.
The third great flying endeavour to feature the Vimy was not a complete success, but its still
worth mentioning. In 1920 efforts were being made to perform a flight from England to Cape Town,
amongst several aircraft to make the attempt were a pair of Vimys. The first was named the Silver
Queen, and it was flown by Pierre Van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand of the South African Air force.
They left Brooklands on the 4th of February 1920, however they crashed a week later between Cairo
and Khartoum - courtesy of a leaking radiator. A second Vimy was leant to them by the RAF in
Cairo and renamed the Silver Queen II. This one reached Bulawayo, which today is in southwest
Zimbabwe. Here the high elevation and severe heat took its toll, and the Vimy failed to lift
off from the airfield – the engine failing due to heat and dirty oil. After the accident the
aircraft was no longer fit to fly and the rest of the journey was completed in a borrowed D.H.9.
Despite the failure, the Vimys had flown far given the conditions, however it served as an excellent
example of the Vimy’s weaknesses. These lessons were applied to future development of the aircraft
and its one of the main reasons why they were so successful when later used in Egypt,
the Middle East and in India. Along with being an excellent frontline bomber,
and a record settings aircraft, the Vimy would also find itself in the commercial line
as the imaginatively named Vimy Commercial. In 1919 the Civil Vimy project created a new design
that replaced the Vimy’s slender fuselage with a considerably thicker one. It had a forebody of
oval scross-sections, completely clear of internal obstructions such as struts or cross-bracing,
and this body was then joined to the standard rear fuselage with fairings.
To accommodate this new shape the fuel tanks were moved under the floor of the fuselage,
with fuel being fed to the engines by wind-driven pumps.
Though it could be considered somewhat guppy looking, the new structure provided excellent
internal space and allowed for a cabin capable of carrying up to 10 passengers in relative comfort.
Initially the idea had been to give it a fully enclosed cockpit, however the test pilots refused
it on the grounds that it a) impaired their ability to see, and b) deprived them of fresh air.
These sorts of arguments would persist for a few more years until airspeeds started to regularly
exceed 130mph and people suddenly developed a desire to not have their face ripped off.
The first commercial prototype was completed in the spring,
and flew for the first time on April the 13th 1919. In terms of overall performance,
it did slightly better than the bomber variant, probably as a result of having the fuel and stores
inside the streamline fuselage. It did however lack the range of its military counterpart,
being limited to just 450 miles. The commercial was not produced in huge numbers,
in fact the largest order for the aircraft came from China – who placed an order for
40 Vimy Commercials amongst other aircraft. A production line was established at Weybridge to
produce these, as well as a handful for domestic use in England, however records indicate that many
of the commercials shipped to China were never used, and simply rotted away in their crates.
In 1921 a military ambulance version of the Commercial was produced for the Royal Air Force.
It was designed to accommodate four stretchers or eight seated patients with two medical staff,
and it featuered an innovative nose-loading arrangement, perhaps the first in the world.
Five of these ambulance models were built, and these were powered by Napier Lions.
A direct descendent of the Commercial, and thus the Vimy, was the Vernon. It was the
first aircraft to be specifically operated for the RAF as a dedicated transport and emergency
support aircraft , this it did during outbreaks of violence in Cyprus and the Middle East.
It did this in two ways: firstly, the Vernon could be used as a traditional transport of
troops and equipment, and secondly, it could be quickly converted in the field to carry bombs.
Though it was operated as both, the Vernon is best remembered for its role in the mail routes.
In 1921 the Vernon, along with RAF Vimys pressed into duties, formed the nucleus of the Middle
Eastern section of the new emerging air routes. Together they helped to revolutionise the mail
service in a part of the world that lacked significant rail networks, and the time it
took to send a letter from Baghdad to London went from 28 days down to 9. Vernons would
bear the brunt of this service until 1926, and as the mail service gained experience, reliability
improved and the amount of mail carried in the first sixteen months increased tenfold.
At the time the first Vernons were operating in the Middle East, improved versions were already
being developed from experiences gained in their use. The biggest needs were more range and power,
and this was achieved with the 450hp Napier Lion engine and the addition of two extra 120
gallon fuel tanks . The trials of this new model were successful and Vickers received
a new contract for the Vernon Mk II under ministry specification 43/22.
Eventually a MkIII variant of the Vernon would be developed, but in March 1923 calls
were growing for the design of an aircraft with larger dimensions, capacity and range
than that of the Vimy, and Vickers would begin work on the Virginia and Victoria designs.
The final Vickers Vimys to retire from service did so in 1938 after almost twenty years of service,
which for the time was a remarkable lifespan for an aircraft design.
Two surviving examples can be found today, both of which were record-setting
aircraft. The transatlantic Vimy is on display at the Science Museum in London,
and the Vimy that took the Smith brothers to Australia is on display at Adelaide
airport – maybe I’ll fly down and see it soon. I hope you all enjoyed this slightly longer video.
10 or so minutes really wasn’t going to do the Vimy justice.
If you don’t mind the longer content, I will do it more regularly for aircraft that have more complex
histories, but as always thank you all very much for watching, and I’ll catch you all next time.