Musings from the Museum 34

MUSINGS FROM THE MUSEUM.

VINTAGE AIRCRAFT PHOTOGRAPHS.

by Alastair Goodrum.

Attending a members evening at the Museum one Thursday back in 1995, I decided to see what lurked inside the large drawer of the table in the Johnson Room. It had always intrigued me because, in those days, one was not encouraged to rootle around willy-nilly in such a prominent piece of furniture. Yet indeed I had seen members open that drawer and huddle and muse over some document that was stored inside. What I discovered brought great pleasure in a small package and I would like to let this tiny part of the  Museum contents see the light of day once again.

As a lifelong enthusiast of aviation in all its forms, I was amazed to discover, tucked at the back of the drawer, a brown envelope – no, not stuffed with cash – but to an aeroplane buff, something just as good. In this unmarked, unsealed envelope were photographic prints of early Vickers Aircraft Company aeroplanes. When and where they had come from or who had secreted them away, I have never discovered, but they show several long-forgotten prototype aeroplanes from the early part of the twentieth century.

VICKERS FB 12A. Service number: A7350.

An order for this ‘pusher-engine’ single-seat fighter was placed with Vickers in mid-1916, but only one Mark 12A was completed. Originally intended to be powered by a 150hp‘Hart’ engine, this was dogged by manufacturing problems and the 12A was fitted first with an 80hp then a 100hp Gnome engine, instead. Greatly under-powered, it was still sent to France for operational trials, but failed its tests miserably. The Hart engine, sponsored by Vickers, never met its specification and was scrapped, while alternative, smaller engines all proved inadequate for the FB12-series, which suffered the same fate.

VICKERS TYPE-163, 02, Experimental bomber and troop transport.

Two views of a one-off, Vickers private venture design, built at the start of 1929 as a troop transport aircraft capable of carrying twenty armed soldiers a distance of up to 1,200 miles. The Air Ministry specification was amended to include night bombing capability, carrying up to ten to twelve 250lb and four 20lb bombs and two defensive machine-gun positions were to be provided. Powerplants were four Rolls-Royce F XIV engines, mounted between the wings in two pairs; one four-bladed propeller pushing and one two-bladed propeller pulling, in each pair, giving a speed of 143mph at 12,000 feet and an optimistic service ceiling of 23,000 feet.The upper wing span was 97 feet – which is not far short ofthat of an Avro Lancaster span. The Type-163 actuallyexceeded Air Ministry specification requirements, but competition for  production contracts was fierce during the 1930s. Vickers were not prepared to keep spending their own money on developing this design further and after just 40 hours of test flying time, this prototype aeroplane was scrapped in 1934.

VICKERS VELLORE Mark I; Air Ministry number: J8906, Civilian registration: G-EBYX.

Part of an order from the Air Ministry for just four aircraft from Vickers, for possible use as a freighter or mail-carrier by Imperial Airways or the RAF. The aeroplane in the photo is a Vellore Mark I fitted with a Bristol Jupiter engine and registered with a civilian mark of G-EBYX. It first flew in May 1928; carried a crew of two; had a wingspan of 67 feet, a top speed of 127mph and a range of 350 miles. Owned by the Air Ministry, it was lent to the makers, Vickers, who wished to use it for a very long-range flight to test the feasibility of long-distance transport of goods by air. Vickers re-engined it with an Armstrong-Siddeley Jaguar IV and installed extra fuel tanks in the fuselage; designating it as a Mark II. On 18 March 1929, two Australian pilots, Flt Lt James Moir and FgOff Harold Owen took off in the Mark II G-EBYX – loaded with 5,000lbs of fuel and stores – from Lympne, bound for Australia. They hoped to set a record by flying about 1,000 miles a day but were beset by several engine problems and other mishaps en route. The Vellore and its crew finallystruggled across the Timor Sea with a failing engine, just managing to reach Cape Don in Northern Australia. With the engine losing power, they crash-landed on 29 April into the tops of trees – to avoid sharks in the sea and crocodiles in the surrounding lagoons! The Vellore was a write-off, but both crew survived, living for eight days in Cape Don lighthouse until rescued.

VICKERS VESPA VI, Civil registration: G-ABIL.

Vespa G-ABIL was a re-engined and much modified version of the prototype Vickers Vespa Mark II, first built in 1925 as a potential army ground support aircraft. This machine was used as a sales demonstration aircraft by a British government mission to China in 1931. Capable of a top speed of 150mph and a maximum service altitude of 27,000 feet, this aeroplane was further modified with a Bristol Pegasus engine to become a Vespa Mark VII, in which guise it finally achieved a modicum of fame. On 16 September 1932, G-ABIL, flown byBritish test pilot Cyril Unwins, captured the world altitude record by reaching a height of 43,976 feet. Having achieved its place in history, G-ABIL was bought by the Air Ministryfor the RAF and given the service number: K3588, finally seeing out its days with the RAF on high-altitude research and as an engine test-bed aeroplane. It was written off in 1938.

Vickers Wellington, K4049 being rolled out of a hangar at Weybridge for its maiden flight from Brooklands aerodrome.

One of Vickers designer Barnes Wallis’s most famous aeroplanes, above are two photos of the prototype Wellington bomber, K4049 that first flew on 15 June 1936, crewed by Vickers’ chief test pilot Captain Joseph ‘Mutt’ Summers with Barnes Wallis and the factory manager Trevor Westbrook on board as observers. Two 915hp Bristol Pegasus X engines gave it a speed of 250mph at 8,000 feet, with an operationalcrew of four or five; a standard bomb load of 9 x 500lb or half that for long-range operations. This prototype aeroplane was written off in a crash during test flying in April 1937, but by then it had proved to be so successful in meeting and exceeding the Air Ministry specification, that production orders were placed with Vickers. Built with a revolutionary geodetic framework devised by Barnes Wallis, the Wellington was an immensely robust design that filled many different roles in the RAF, remaining in service until 1950, by which time no less than 11,461 examples had been built – the largest number of any British bomber ever built.

These are just a few of the photographs secreted away in that draw, but it goes to show that you never know what little gems you might find if you take the time to browse the Museum archives.

END.