Vickers Vimy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicker...imy_Commercial

The Vickers Vimy was a British heavy bomber aircraft developed and manufactured
by Vickers Limited. Developed during the latter stages of the First World War to
equip the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), the Vimy was designed by Reginald Kirshaw
"Rex" Pierson, Vickers' chief designer.

Only a handful of aircraft had entered service by the time the Armistice of 11
November 1918 came into effect, so the type was not used in active combat
operations during the war, but the Vimy became the core of the RAF's heavy
bomber force throughout the 1920s. The Vimy achieved success as both a military
and civil aircraft, the latter using the Vimy Commercial variant. A dedicated
transport derivative of the Vimy, the Vickers Vernon, became the first troop
transport aircraft operated by the RAF.

During the interwar period the Vimy set several records for long-distance
flights, the most celebrated and significant of these being the first non-stop
crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, performed by John Alcock and Arthur Brown in
June 1919. Other record-breaking flights were made from the United Kingdom to
destinations such as South Africa and Australia. The Vimy continued to be
operated until the 1930s in both military and civil capacities.

Design and developement

The Vickers F.B.27 Vimy is an equal-span twin-engine four-bay biplane, with
balanced ailerons on both upper and lower wings. The engine nacelles were
positioned mid-gap and contained the fuel tanks. It had a biplane empennage with
elevators on both upper and lower surfaces and twin rudders. The main
undercarriage consisted of two pairs of wheels, each pair carried on a pair of
tubular steel V-struts. There was a tail-skid and an additional skid mounted
below the nose of the fuselage to prevent nose-overs.

The aircraft was designed to accommodate a three-man crew and a payload of 12
bombs. In addition to the pilot's cockpit, which was positioned just ahead of
the wings, there were two positions for gunners, one behind the wings and the
other in the nose, each with a pair of Scarff ring-mounted Lewis guns; the rear
cockpit mounting was commonly not fitted during the interwar period. Provision
for a maximum of four spare drums of ammunition were present in the nose
position, while up to six drums could be carried in the rear position.

The majority of the Vimy's payload of 250 lb bombs were stowed vertically inside
the fuselage, between the spars of the lower-centre section; a typical load
consisted of 12 bombs. In some variants further bombs could be stowed externally
for a total of 18 bombs, depending on the particular engine used to provide
enough power. For anti-surface warfare in the maritime environment, the Vimy
could also be armed with a pair of torpedoes. To improve bombing accuracy, the
Vimy was equipped with the High Altitude Drift Mk.1a bombsight. Standard
equipment also included two Michelin-built Mk.1 flare carriers.

The Vimy was powered by a range of different engines. Owing to engine supply
difficulties, the prototype Vimys were tested with a number of different engine
types, including Sunbeam Maoris, Salmson 9Zm water-cooled radials, and Fiat
A.12bis engines, before production orders were placed for aircraft powered by
the 230 hp (170 kW) BHP Puma, 400 hp (300 kW) Fiat, 400 hp (300 kW) Liberty L-12
and the 360 hp (270 kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines, with a total of 776
ordered before the end of the First World War. Of these, only aircraft powered
by the Eagle engine, known as the Vimy IV, were delivered to the RAF. Due to the
diverse number of engines used, there are multiple conflicting official reports
on the production numbers of each sub-variant of the Vimy.

Design and production of the prototypes was extremely rapid; the detailed design
phase of what had become internally designated as the Vickers F.B.27 and the
manufacture of the three prototypes was completed within four months.


Role
Heavy bomber

Manufacturer
Vickers Limited

Designer
Reginald Kirshaw Pierson

First flight
30 November 1917

Introduction
1919

Retired
1933

Primary user
Royal Air Force

Variants
Vickers Vernon

RAF service

On 12 June 1918, according to aviation publication Flight International, the Air
Board were to initially deploy the first production Vimy units as maritime
patrol aircraft, equipped for anti-submarine warfare, and once this requirement
had been satisfied, subsequent aircraft would be allocated to performing
nighttime bombing missions from bases in France. This had been due to a recently
introduced policy under which the number of land-based aircraft allocated to
anti-submarine patrols was to be vastly expanded, from 66 landplanes in November
1917 to a projected force of 726 landplanes, in which the newly-available Vimy
would be a key aircraft due to its long range capabilities. During August 1918,
the application of floats to the Vimy was studied, but it is not known if any
aircraft were ever so fitted.

Throughout the 1920s, the Vimy formed the main heavy bomber force of the RAF;
for some years, it was the only twin-engine bomber to be stationed at bases in
Britain. On 1 April 1924, No. 9 Squadron and No. 58 Squadron, equipped with the
Vimy, stood up, tripling the home-based heavy bomber force. On 1 July 1923, a
newly formed Night Flying Flight, based at RAF Biggin Hill, equipped with the
Vimy, was formed; during the general strike of 1926, this unit performed aerial
deliveries of the British Gazette newspaper throughout the country.[18] Between
1921 and 1926, the type formed the backbone of the airmail service between Cairo
and Baghdad. The Vimy served as a front line bomber in the Middle East and in
the United Kingdom from 1919 until 1925, by which point it had been replaced by
the newer Vickers Virginia.

Despite the emergence of the Virginia, which numerous Vimy squadrons were soon
re-equipped with, the Vimy continued to equip a Special Reserve bomber squadron,
502 Squadron, stationed at Aldergrove in Northern Ireland until 1929. The Vimy
continued to be used in secondary roles, such as its use as a training aircraft;
many were re-engined with Bristol Jupiter or Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar radial
engines. The final Vimys, used as target aircraft for searchlight crews,
remained in use until 1938.

Vimy Commercial

The Vimy Commercial was a civilian version with a larger-diameter fuselage
(largely of spruce plywood), which was developed at and first flew from the
Joyce Green airfield in Kent on 13 April 1919. Initially, it bore the interim
civil registration K-107, later being re-registered as G-EAAV.

The prototype entered the 1920 race to Cape Town; it left Brooklands on 24
January 1920 but crashed at Tabora, Tanganyika on 27 February.

A Chinese order for 100 is particularly noteworthy; forty of the forty-three
built were delivered to China, but most remained in their crates unused; only
seven were put into civilian use.

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

Specifications

General characteristics
Crew: 3
Length: 43 ft 7 in (13.28 m)
Wingspan: 68 ft 1 in (20.75 m)
Height: 15 ft 8 in (4.78 m)
Wing area: 1,330 sq ft (124 m2)
Empty weight: 7,104 lb (3,222 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 10,884 lb (4,937 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII water-cooled V12 engines, 360 hp (270 kW)
each

Performance
Maximum speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
Range: 900 mi (1,400 km, 780 nmi)
Service ceiling: 7,000 ft (2,100 m)

Armament

Guns: 1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Gun in Scarff ring in nose and 1 × in Scarff
ring in mid-fuselage
Bombs: 2,476 lb (1,123 kg) of bombs



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