UK1 E8630 Vickers Vimy to G-EAOU.jpg

[Joseph Testagrose]

[[email protected]]

It is hard for me to think of how much courage it would have taken to climb
into one of these, and attempt to fly it. Just think of what could happen
if the nose skid caught on something during take off or landing.

[Savageduck[_3_]]

On 2014-04-18 04:27:32 +0000, said:

> It is hard for me to think of how much courage it would have taken to climb
> into one of these, and attempt to fly it. Just think of what could happen
> if the nose skid caught on something during take off or landing.

Now think of the pioneering long distance flights made in the Vimy.
There was Alcock & Brown's 1919 trans-Atlantic crossing, then there
were the flights from the UK to Australia and South Africa.
All of those men were made from "The right stuff".
--
Regards,

Savageduck

[Dave Swindell]

This Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU (affectionately known as "God 'Elp All Of
Us"), was flown by the brothers Ross and Keith Smith, together with
mechanics Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers, to victory in the 1919 England
to Australia Air Race. In the process, they became the first people ever
to fly from England to Australia.

Built as a Vickers F.B.27A Vimy IV for the RAF, serial number F8630, it
was too late to see service in the Great War. However, Vickers were
persuaded to enter it in the England-Australia Air Race and converted it
with extra fuel tankage. The aircraft operated to a maximum weight of
13,000 lb (5,896 kg) and was powered by two Rolls Royce Eagle VIII
engines of 360 hp each. It was said that the starboard radiator had
already crossed the Atlantic on Alcock and Brown's famous flight!

The aircraft is today preserved in a specially-built enclosure at
Adelaide Airport.
--
Dave Swindell

[Andrew Chaplin]

wrote in
:

> It is hard for me to think of how much courage it would have taken to
> climb into one of these, and attempt to fly it. Just think of what
> could happen if the nose skid caught on something during take off or
> landing.

Steve Fossett re-enacted the flight as Alcock and Brown in 2005. He did one
of his test flights through Ottawa. This is the aircraft (With diesel
engines, if I recall correctly) at Rockcliffe in the hangar of the National
Aeronautical Collection where it had put down for the night.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

[Dave Kearton[_3_]]

"Dave Swindell" > wrote in message
...
> This Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU (affectionately known as "God 'Elp All Of Us"),
> was flown by the brothers Ross and Keith Smith, together with mechanics
> Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers, to victory in the 1919 England to Australia
> Air Race. In the process, they became the first people ever to fly from
> England to Australia.



<snippage>


> The aircraft is today preserved in a specially-built enclosure at Adelaide
> Airport.
> --
> Dave Swindell


Make that 'mostly' preserved....

http://peterlewisdesign.tripod.com/australia/classicaircraftadelaide.htm


I have an old email (somewhere) with more details, but essentially in 1957,
the RAAF transported the Vimy from Canberra to Adelaide on the back of two
low-loaders. The fuselage was on one with the wings and engines on
another.

In one of our classic "oh ****" moments, the driver of the 'wings and
engines' truck, flicked a cigarette butt out of his window, which was then
sucked into the load on the back. Within a couple of minutes, both wings,
engines and propellers were in their final state of black & crispy.

It took two years by (I believe) RAAF tradesmen and local volunteers to
reconstruct a new set of wings and engine nacelles, the props were
re-manufactured, using an original that was hanging over the bar in the RAAF
Pt Cook Officers' Mess. The plane looks magnificent, the rebuild is (I'm
told) outwardly identical to the original wings.


The Vimy was eventually housed in a purpose-built enclosure outside the
then-new airport terminal in Adelaide - around 1959. After a major
refurbishment in the '80s, the display building was enclosed at the front,
to prevent sunlight damaging the paintwork and fabric.

Now there's a new terminal at the airport and the display building is still
there, now it's a quieter area of the airport, not frequented by hordes of
mouth-breathing, camera-toting knuckle draggers.




--



Cheers

Dave Kearton