Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Heavy long-range bomber

Power Plant:

Two 269 kw (360 hp) Rolls Royce Eagle VIII twelve-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engines

Specifications:

Armament:

Two 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine guns in nose, and two amidships; capacity to carry up to 1,123 kg (2,476 lb) of bombs

History:

The Vimy was one of a series of heavy bombers, like the DH.10 Amiens and the Handley Page V/1500, which were designed to bomb Germany during World War I if that conflict had continued.  In fact, the war concluded before the Vimy could be built in sufficient numbers, and thus the type continued in service in the training role.  The prototype Vimy (serial B9952) was flown for the first time in November 1917, powered by two 154 kw (207 hp) Hispano-Suiza engines, and this became known as the Mk I.  Subsequently the Mks II and III were released with 209 kw (280 hp) Sunbeam Maori and 231 kw (310 hp) Fiat engines (respectively), before the definitive Mk IV appeared with the Rolls Royce Eagle.

Although it did not achieve great prominence as a heavy bomber, the Vimy was notable for a number of long, historic flights, and later the Vimy Commercial airliner was released for airline use.  On 15 June 1919 a Vimy with modified seating and extra fuel tanks in the fuselage, piloted by Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown, left St Johns, Newfoundland, and made the first non-stop trans-Atlantic crossing.  This Vimy was preserved and is on display in the Science Museum in London.

In March 1919 the Australian Government offered a prize of £10,000 ($20,000) for the first flight from the United Kingdom to Australia by an Australian crew in a British aircraft. The brothers, Captain Ross and Lieutenant Keith Smith of the Australian Flying Corps, entered a Vimy, with Sergeants J M Bennett and W H Shiers as mechanics. The Vimy, an ex-RAF machine (F8630), registered G-EAOU (said to stand for God ‘elp All Of Us) left Hounslow in Greater London on 12 November 1919 and arrived at Fanny Bay, Darwin, NT on 10 December that year, having covered the distance in 188 hours and 20 minutes flying time.  The aircraft, after some problems, reached Sydney on 14 February 1920 where the prize was presented to the crew by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon William M Hughes.  The aircraft itself was presented to the Commonwealth Government by Vickers Ltd, and was allotted the military serial A5-1, which was never painted on the aircraft.  Eventually it was placed on permanent display in a special building erected for the purpose at Adelaide airport, SA.

The Smith brothers were both knighted.  However, Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett were killed in the United Kingdom on 14 April 1922 whilst testing a Vickers Viking amphibian for a proposed flight around the world.  Sir Keith Smith was, for more than 30 years, the Australian representative to Vickers Armstrong, and a member of the Board of Qantas until his death on 19 December 1955.  Lieutenant Shiers died on 3 June 1968.

Several other Vimys were modified for long-distance flights.  G-UABA was flown by Lieutenant Colonel Pierre van Ryneveld and Major C J Quintin Brand, with two mechanics, in an attempt to win a prize for the first flight from Cairo in Egypt to Cape Town in South Africa in February 1920. However, the aircraft crashed at Korosko in upper Egypt.  The journey was attempted in another aircraft and this aircraft reached Bulawayo in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) but crashed on take-off.  Another example, G-EAAV, the prototype Vimy Commercial, attempted the same record but crashed on take-off at Tabora in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) on 27 February 1920.

In the late 1960s the Vintage Aircraft & Flying Association built a Vimy replica (G-AWAU – c/n VAFA.02) powered by two Rolls Royce Eagle VIII engines in the United Kingdom to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Atlantic flight.  It was flown at Wisley on 3 June 1969 and was flown to the Paris Airshow.  At one stage it was damaged by fire.  It was rebuilt, re-painted as H651, and eventually was retired and donated to the RAF Museum at Hendon in Greater London with the serial F8614.

In the 1990s Australian adventurer Lang Kidby, and American Peter McMillan, built a replica of the Vickers Vimy (painted as G-EAOU but registered in the USA as NX71MY) and, powered by converted Chevrolet V-8 motor-car engines, left the United Kingdom Farnborough Airshow in 1994, retracing the epic journey of the Smith brothers.  The aircraft then made a tour of Australia before being shipped back to the United Kingdom.

In 1999 the same aircraft, now named Silver Queen, left the UK and retraced the route flown by the original Silver Queen to Capetown.  By this stage the Chevrolet engines had been replaced byconverted V-12 BMW units.  In 2005 it was planned to retrace the route flown by Alcock and Brown in 1919 across the Atlantic.  By this time it had been fitted with two 8.4 litre Orenda V-8 engines driving four-blade propellers.  It was proposed to leave St John’s Airport, Newfoundland, Canada on June 14 but it was delayed by adverse weather and technical problems.  It eventually took off on Saturday, 2 July, flown by Steve Fossett and Mark Rebholz and, using only a compass and sextant to navigate, it arrived, landing on the 8th hole at the Connembra Championship Golf Links at Clifden, Ireland on the Sunday, after being in the air for 18 hrs and 15 mins.  The aircraft was then stored for some time in the United Kingdom before being returned to airworthiness.

The replica was registered in the United States under the FAA Experimental Aircraft regulations, for which there was no equivalent in the United Kingdom. Attempting to obtain a United Kingdom Permit to Fly was considered to be expensive and time consuming.  Flying the aircraft in the United Kingdom under a special exemption with a foreign registration would not have been successful.  From 2006 to 2009 the aircraft represented Brooklands at the Farnborough Airshow, the Goodwood Revival, and the 2009 Connemara Airshow in Ireland, commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Alcock and Brown’s flight across the Atlantic.  On 15 November 2009 N71MY was retired and placed on display at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey.

In 2019-2020 the original Vimy G-EAOU was dismantled in its specially-built building at Adelaide airport due to a number of factors, including the difficulty for members of the public to visit the aircraft, and was restored, re-assembled and placed on display in a specially prepared area in the airport terminal at Adelaide, SA.

In February 1970 it was noted that there were parts of the Smith Brothers Vimy stored in a garage at Burwood, NSW.  Some years before, whilst being conveyed from Adelaide to Canberra, ACT the Vimy, G-EAOU, suffered extensive damage and had to be repaired.  Stored at Burwood were an elevator, two ailerons, engine interplane support stanchions, a spare oil tank, flying wires and a rudder.  Eventually these parts found their way to the Camden Museum of Aviation at Narellan, NSW.