The Vickers Vanox was a British
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 ...
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes
air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles.
There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...
design intended as a successor to the
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
for the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
. Although it underwent extensive development, it was not successful, only a single aircraft being built.
Design and development
Conceived as a biplane powered by the
Bristol Jupiter
The Bristol Jupiter is a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine that was built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developme ...
radial engine it would have much better performance than the Virginia with similar engines. Initially a private venture, the submission of the Vickers design to the
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...
coincided with the issuing of
Air Ministry specification B.19/27 for a Virginia replacement.
The B.19/27 specification meant that the Vickers submission would be tested competitively in trials against other manufacturer's designs. In the redesign to meet the specification, the B.19/27 project took the Virginia Mark X all moving
rudder
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...
together with an all-moving
tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...
. Three designs were submitted in total; two biplanes with Jupiter and geared
Bristol Mercury
The Bristol Mercury is a British nine-cylinder, air-cooled, single-row, piston radial engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from ...
engines respectively and a
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
version. The Mercury-engined design, the Vickers Type 150 was selected by the Ministry for consideration and building, now to be funded by the Ministry, started. Partway through it was agreed that an alternative engine was allowable, the Rolls-Royce F.XIV (later developed into the
Rolls-Royce Kestrel
The Rolls-Royce Kestrel (internal type F) is a 21.25 litre (1,295 in³) V-12 aircraft engine from Rolls-Royce. It was their first cast-block engine, and used as the pattern for most of their future piston-engine designs. Used during the interw ...
).
The aircraft flew for the first time on 30 November 1929.
The aircraft was a two-bay biplane of all-metal construction, with a biplane tailplane and with the two engines mounted between the wings.
Initial testing and evaluation showed that the aircraft had poor handling, being unstable laterally, prone to
Dutch roll
Dutch roll is an aircraft motion consisting of an out-of- phase combination of "tail-wagging" (yaw) and rocking from side to side (roll). This yaw-roll coupling is one of the basic flight dynamic modes (others include phugoid, short period, ...
and to severe flexing of the rear fuselage.
[Andrews and Morgan 1988, p.259] Following a forced landing it was rebuilt incorporating recommendations made in reports from Ministry test pilots to try to resolve these problems, and was powered by Kestrel III engines. It was then given the name Vickers Vanox by Vickers.
These changes did not solve the aircraft's handling problems, and the sweepback of the wings was reduced, which did resolve the handling problems. The Kestrel engines proved unreliable,
[Andrews and Morgan 1988, p.261] and were replaced by more powerful
Bristol Pegasus
The Bristol Pegasus is a British nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial engine, radial aircraft engine, aero engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1 ...
radial engines. In this form, the aircraft was designated the Vickers Type 195 Vanox, and was demonstrated to meet the requirements of specification.
Following further modifications in February 1933 to improve performance, with extended, three-bay wings being fitted, it was now designated the Type 255. However, by this time, the competing
Handley Page Heyford
The Handley Page Heyford was a twin-engine biplane bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page. It holds the distinction of being the last biplane heavy bomber to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The ...
and
Fairey Hendon bombers had already been ordered into production, so the sole Type 255 was used for
aerial refuelling
Aerial refueling ( en-us), or aerial refuelling ( en-gb), also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to ano ...
trials work by the
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...
, being flown for the last time on 7 January 1938.
Specifications (Type 150)
See also
References
* Andrews, E.N.; Morgan, E.B. ''Vickers Aircraft Since 1908'', London: Putnam, Second Edition, 1988. .
* Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. .
External links
Vickers Vanox– British Aircraft Directory
{{Vickers aircraft
1920s British bomber aircraft
Vanox
Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1929
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear