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7 unusual facts about Vickers Vimy


Brooklands Museum

The Museum also owns and, until late 2009, operated an airworthy Vickers Vimy replica which was built in America in 1994 to re-enact the design's three record-breaking long distance flights of 1919-20.

Fannie Bay, Northern Territory

Situated in the suburb is the Fannie Bay Gaol museum, Fannie Bay Race Track and a monument to Ross Smith, captain of the Vickers Vimy that, in December 1919, was the first aircraft to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days.

Harry Ricardo

The dramatic reduction in fuel use as a result of higher-octane fuel was directly responsible for allowing Alcock and Brown to fly the Atlantic in their Vickers Vimy bombers adapted with his modifications.

Longreach Airport

In December 1919, a Vickers Vimy landed, piloted by Ross and Keith Smith, who were en route to Melbourne after completing the first England to Australia flight.

Parap, Northern Territory

Having departed Hounslow Heath Aerodrome near London on 12 November, Ross and Keith Smith landed their Vickers FB27 Vimy G-EAOU 40 at Darwin aerodrome at 3.05 pm on Friday 10 December 1919 and were met by the Acting Administrator, Staniforth Smith.

Timeline of St. John's history

1919 – St. John's was the starting point for the first non-stop transatlantic aircraft flight, by Alcock and Brown in a modified Vickers Vimy IV bomber, in June 1919, departing from Lester's Field in St. John's and ending in a bog near Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.

2005 – In July, the flight was duplicated by American aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett in a replica Vickers Vimy aircraft, with St. John's International Airport substituting for Lester's Field (now an urban and residential part of the city).


British military aircraft designation systems

For bombers the additional requirement was a placename, hence the Boulton Paul Bourges; and its contemporaries - the Airco Amiens and Vickers Vimy (Bourges, Amiens and Vimy all being in France).


see also