Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Two-seat light touring aircraft

Power Plant:

One 45 kw (60 hp) Vickers-built R Esnault-Pelterie REP five-cylinder air-cooled radial engine

Specifications:

History:

Vickers Ltd of Westminster, UK was founded in 1911 under the control of Major H F Wood, the firm’s Commercial Aviation Department being placed under the control of Brigadier General Caddell.  The firm acquired the sole British rights for the REP machine designed in about 1910 by French designer, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, this being a light two-seat aircraft of tubular nickel steel construction with fabric covering.  It was placed into production by Vickers.  The aircraft, also known as the Vickers No 1, was unusual in that it had a steel frame, whereas most aircraft of the time were of wooden construction; a single control for pitch and roll; and lateral control dependent upon wing warping.  It had two main undercarriages, each bearing two wheels.

Although known as the Vickers No 1, it is said to be the second aircraft built by Vickers, a previous aircraft also of French design having been built and flown from Paris over the continent via Amsterdam, Brussels, Calais, London, and back to Paris without an engine change.

One example was imported by Australian geologist, Dr Douglas Mawson (later Sir), who became famous for his explorations of the Antarctic. Mawson had been a member of the 1907-1909 Shackleton expedition and was organising an expedition of his own, this to include wireless for communication between the ship and shore stations, and an aircraft, the Vickers REP.  The aircraft arrived in Adelaide on the RMS Macedonia on 30 September 1911.  The pilot of the aircraft was Hugh Evelyn Watkins, a Lieutenant with the Essex Regiment, who was born in 1881.  He had obtained Royal Aeronautical Society Pilots’ Certificate No 25 on a Howard Wright Biplane at Brooklands in Surrey, UK on 8 November 1910.  Engineer to work on the machine was Mr Frank H Bickerton, born in 1886, who was the assistant aviator and engineer to the pilot, Hugh Watkins, for the Antarctic expedition.

When he arrived in Adelaide with the aircraft on 16 September 1911 Mr Watkins stated he had flown the aircraft for a month in the United Kingdom where it had been demonstrated to the War Office during which an altitude of 457 m (1,500 ft) had been reached.  In Adelaide it was taken to Cheltenham Racecourse, and assembled in a canvas hangar.  On 4 October it made a number of flights in front of a curious crowd. On 5 October 1911, with Watkins in the pilot’s seat, and Mr F Wild in the rear seat, the aircraft took off.  It reached an altitude of some 152 m (500 ft) and started to side-slip, losing altitude.  Reports suggest at about 46 m (150 ft) it struck turbulence, suddenly dropped and in a turn at low altitude the left wing hit the grass in front of the grandstand, the aeroplane ending up upside down with extensive damage.  No injuries to the crew members were sustained.

Douglas Mawson is reported as saying “Watkins managed to catch one of the wings on the ground, and capsized it when going at a rate of about 70 miles an hour.”  It is believed after the crash Watkins returned to the United Kingdom.  The aircraft was returned to the hangar where it was partly rebuilt by Frank Bickerton.  However, there was not enough time to completely rebuild the wings and the fuselage before it was taken to the Antarctic in 1911.  Mawson had planned for the aircraft to be flown, as the first powered aircraft in Polar skies, north or south, in the exploring role.

The aircraft, without its wings, was conveyed to the Antarctic strapped to the deck of the ship Aurora, leaving Hobart on 2 December 1911 with the support ship Toroa.  Men and supplies for a proposed wireless relay station were delivered to Macquarie Island, and Aurora continued to Cape Denison where the aircraft was floated ashore in January 1912.

In the Autumn and Winter months Bickerton worked on the aircraft in a workshop alongside the main hut and converted it to what has been described as a “flightless, propeller-drive, sledge-towing air tractor”.  In the Spring it was wheeled outside for testing but the freezing conditions made the engine oil too thick for effective operation and it was not until mid-November that it was run, reaching speeds of up to 30 km/h (19 mph) in a headwind.  In order to tow loads the two-seat aircraft was converted to have a third seat.

However, the Antarctic is notorious for strong winds and it was thought at the time the aircraft may never have been able to fly in the area. Be that as it may, the REP was used as a tractor and towed sledges.  On 3 December it was set-up to tow four heavily-laden sledges, Messrs Bickerton, Leslie Whetter and Alfred Hodgeman being assigned to explore the coast to the west of Cape Denison.  The unit initially worked well but when proceeding up an ice plateau after 16 km (10 miles) the engine, as described by Mawson, “developed an internal disorder”.  The next day it seized, the propeller was smashed and the unit was beyond repair.

The three men then hauled their sledges over 500 km (311 miles) before returning to base.  The machine was abandoned but in January 1913 Bickerton and others hauled it back to Mawsons Hut at Commonwealth Bay where the engine was salvaged.  Noted Australian World War I photographer Frank Hurley was part of this expedition and photographed the machine.  The airframe was left out in the open and was noted in situ in 1931, and again in 1976.  At some stage the tail was removed and placed in storage at Mawsons Hut, and the pilot’s seat was also located.  Expeditions have been planned to recover the framework of the aircraft and in the 1990s it was again located but has not been recovered to Australia.

On his return to Australia MaVickers Repwson had a debt to Vickers Limited for the aircraft of nearly $2,000 (£1,000). He approached the Company and was successful in getting it to waive payment, effectively donating the aircraft to the expedition in the cause of science.