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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1919

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C.Andrews Vickers Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)

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   Height and heat also defeated the other attempt by a Vimy, chartered from Vickers by The Times, with Dr Chalmers Mitchell as their Press representative on the flight. The aeroplane was the prototype Vimy Commercial G-EAAV (originally K-107). It left Brooklands on 24 January, 1920, and crashed at Tabora, Tanganyika, on 27 February, failing to takeoff in tropical conditions. It was found that the water in the cooling system of one of the engines was contaminated. It was clear that further engine and airframe development would be needed to operate in such conditions if the lessons of these African flights were to be fully applied. Judging from the successful use of the Vimy and its family successors in Egypt, the Middle East and India in later years, it seems clear that these troubles in African flying were taken to heart.
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   After the Armistice of November 1918, and the rapid cancellation of contracts for military aircraft, the executives of Vickers' aviation started to look around for aircraft projects which might prove attractive in the new world of civil aviation, then thought by many to be just round the corner. Most favoured by Capt Peter Acland, by that time Aviation Department Manager, and by Pierson, was a civil version of the Vimy intended as a passenger carrier for the small private-enterprise airlines about to be formed.
   In January 1919 the civil Vimy project, known originally as the Monocoq, crystallised into the design of a new fuselage of generous dimensions to replace the slender bomber fuselage. A forebody of oval cross-section, completely clear of internal obstructions, such as struts or cross-bracing, was joined to the standard rear fuselage, with light fairings attached top and bottom to produce a reasonably streamlined structure, on which the wing cellule, engine mountings and biplane tail of the standard bomber were mounted.
   In the forebody wooden box-formers were located on box longerons (to mate with those in the rear fuselage), and the structure was covered with Consuta copper-sewn plywood, the whole comprising a form of stressed-skin construction in wood. Underfloor tanks carried the fuel, which was lifted to service tanks in the upper wing by Vickers' windmill-driven pumps, mounted outboard on the lower centre sections. The longerons aft were of circular section Vickers-Ryan segmented wood type.
   Although externally the effect of this large fuselage was not particularly attractive, internally it embodied a spacious cabin capable of carrying 10 passengers in comfort, seated in unstressed leather-padded or wicker chairs. Passenger steps attached to the inside of the rear door, which was hinged at the bottom, added to the modern aspect of the cabin. Regrettably, Vickers' test pilots at Joyce Green refused to consider the neat enclosed flight deck intended to complement the design, saying that vision would be impaired and that they preferred the fresh air of their open cockpits. So the standard cockpit was incorporated as on the bomber, with the eventual change of the captain's seat from starboard (as on the transatlantic Vimy) to port, to comply with the then new air-traffic regulations for left-hand approach circuits as soon as these became mandatory. As in modern practice, by removing the passenger seats, a rear freight space of 300 cu ft could be provided to carry 2,500 lb.
   In still air the performance of this Vimy Commercial, as it was eventually named, was slightly in advance of that of the bomber, a bonus probably of carrying stores inside instead of outside; but when adverse winds were encountered its short range was a limiting factor, and with full load a refuelling stop had to be made at a landing strip on the London-Paris route. However, the original concept was sound, and it survived for many years throughout Vickers' range of large military and civil transports up to the Valentia bomber-transport in regular service well into the second world war.
   Built in Vickers' aircraft experimental shop at Bexleyheath, the prototype Vimy Commercial first flew on 13 April, 1919, at Joyce Green in the hands of Stan Cockerell. Bearing the interim civil registration K-107, it flew at various presentations of Vickers aircraft, including the ELTA exhibition at Amsterdam. Later as G-EAAV it attempted the flight to the Cape as previously noted.
   In 1919 the Chinese Government ordered 40 Vimy Commercials with 35 VIM trainers (converted from surplus wartime F.E.2ds) and 20 reconditioned Avro 504Ks from Vickers, to establish civil aviation in China. The financing of this contract proved difficult, and was eventually arranged by the floating of Chinese Vickers bonds in London. In his book Sagittarius Rising, Cecil Lewis describes his experiences in China with the assembly and flying of some of these Commercials, but most of them appear to have remained in their crates unused.
   A production line of Vimy Commercials was established at Weybridge, No. 41 was registered G-EASI and named City of London by its operators, S. Instone and Co, a shipping line pioneering an airline. G-EASI was in service for five years on various European short-haul routes, being taken over by Imperial Airways, which in a later merger of private airlines absorbed Instone's interests. By 1 April, 1924, it had flown 108,000 miles and carried many thousands of passengers.
   A Vimy Commercial, G-EAUL, came second in the large aeroplane class of the Air Ministry competitions for civil aircraft in 1920. Another was bought by the French airline, Grands Express Aeriens, for whose service it was engined with Napier Lions and registered F-ADER; but in a modification made at Weybridge later on, it was fitted with 400 hp Lorraine-Dietrich engines.
   A Vimy Commercial was also bought by Soviet Russia at about the same time, but no information exists as to its career, except that it was flown in the Moscow region. It combined features of the Instone G-EASI and the later Royal Air Force Vernon and was powered with Napier Lion engines. On delivery, no registration marks were carried. From S. Davis, Vickers' service engineer who went to Russia with this Vimy Commercial and a Vickers Viking IV amphibian, it was learned that the Russians gave him the impression that the acquisition of these aircraft was to familiarise themselves with the latest Western ideas and practices in aeronautics.
   In 1921 a military ambulance version of the Vimy Commercial was produced for the Royal Air Force, to carry four stretcher or eight sitting cases, with two medical staff in attendance, the stretchers being loaded through a door in the nose. This was probably the first instance of nose loading. Five of these Vimy ambulance versions were built, powered with Lions, but overseas they did not give a highly impressive performance. One Vimy ambulance (J6904) was fitted with extra wing tanks to Vernon Mark III standard as a reconditioned conversion and others followed.

Vimy (F.B.27 A) Commercial
   Accommodation: 2 crew 10 passengers.
   Engines: Two 360 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII
   Span: 68 ft
   Length: 42 ft 8 in
   Height: 15 ft 7 1/2 in
   Wing Area: 1,330 sq ft
   Empty Weight: 7,790 lb
   Gross Weight: 12,500 lb
   Max Speed: 98 mph at ground level
   Climb to 5,000 ft: 28 min
   Absolute Ceiling: 10,500 ft
   Range: 450 miles

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Описание:

  • C.Andrews Vickers Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)
  • L.Andersson Soviet Aircraft and Aviation 1917-1941 (Putnam)
  • A.Jackson British Civil Aircraft since 1919 vol.3 (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight