The Canadian Vickers Varuna was a Canadian flying boat of the 1920s built by

Canadian Vickers Canadian Vickers Limited was an aircraft and shipbuilding company that operated in Canada during the early part of the 20th century until 1944. A subsidiary of Vickers Limited, it built its own aircraft designs as well as others under licence. ...

as a twin-engined, unequal-span

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

, with a wooden hull and steel tube structure.

Design and development

The Varuna was developed in response to a

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environ ...

requirement for a flying boat to transport men and equipment to forest fires. It was a large-scale twin-engined version of the Vedette.

Operational history

Most Varunas spent their service in

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

operating in their intended role; all Varuna IIs were withdrawn in 1930 and the sole Varuna I was struck off in 1932

Variants

* Varuna I - with

Wright J-6 Whirlwind The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical (originally an independent company, later a division of Curtiss-Wright). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to incl ...

radial engines, one built. * Varuna II - with

Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV The Armstrong Siddeley Lynx is a British seven-cylinder aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. Testing began in 1920 and 6,000 had been produced by 1939. In Italy Alfa Romeo built a licensed version of this engine named the Alfa Romeo L ...

radial engines.

Specifications (Varuna II)

References

External links

{{Portal bar, Aviation 1920s Canadian military transport aircraft Flying boats

Varuna Varuna (; sa, वरुण, , Malay: ''Baruna'') is a Vedic deity associated initially with the sky, later also with the seas as well as Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). He is found in the oldest layer of Vedic literature of Hinduism, suc ...

Biplanes Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft