The Vickers Vellore was a large biplane designed as a freight and mail carrier, in single-engined and twin-engined versions, which saw limited use as freighters and long-range experimental aircraft. A final variant with a broader fuselage, the Vellox, was completed as an airliner.

Development

The Vickers Vellore, named after the Indian city of

Vellore Vellore ( ), also spelled Velur, is a sprawling city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River and surrounded by the Javadi Hills in the northeastern ...

, was a response to Air Ministry specification 34/24, which called for a civil mail and freight carrier. It was a very large single-engined two-bay biplane, metal framed and fabric covered. The wings were of equal span with a slight stagger and sweep and braced with parallel interplane struts. Both upper and lower wings carried balanced ailerons. There were gaps both above and below the fuselage, whose diameter increased behind the radial engine. The crew sat side by side in an open cockpit just in front of the wings, giving an excellent view. Behind them was the cargo hold, with the fuselage tapering towards the biplane tailplane which was fitted with balanced elevators. There were four slender finless rudders, roughly equally spaced between the two tailplanes. The undercarriage was a simple fixed split-axle arrangement, plus a sprung tailskid. The Vellore I, fitted with a

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 ...

IX, flew for the first time on 17 May 1928. It appeared at the

RAF Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of ...

display in June that year, then went on to

RAF Martlesham Heath Royal Air Force Martlesham Heath or more simply RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force station located southwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. It was active between 1917 and 1963, and played an important role in the development o ...

for tests in October. These it passed with flying colours, its performance better than predicted and it demonstrated good reliability. In early 1929 the Vellore was fitted with an

Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar The Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar is an aircraft engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. The Jaguar was a petrol-fuelled air-cooled 14-cylinder two-row radial engine design. The Jaguar III was first used in 1923, followed in 1925 by the Jaguar IV ...

VI and extra fuel tanks in the freight compartment for a flight to Australia. Leaving Lympne on 18 March 1929 with a full load including the extra fuel, the Vellore II (or Jaguar-Vellore) made

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

in stages before engine trouble caused a forced landing. After spares arrived, the flight continued until the engine malfunctioned again over the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

, and the Vellore was wrecked in trees near the Cape Don lighthouse at the western extremity of the

Cobourg Peninsula The Cobourg Peninsula is a peninsula located east of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is deeply indented with coves and bays, covers a land area of about , and is virtually uninhabited with a population ranging from about 20 ...

on the Australian mainland. The two Australian crew were unhurt. The Vellore III was a twin-engined development that was fitted with a pair of Jupiter XIFs with

Townend ring A Townend ring is a narrow-chord (aircraft), chord cowling ring fitted around the cylinders of an aircraft radial engine to reduce drag and improve cooling. It was patented in 1929, and found use on various aircraft of the 1930s and into the 1940s ...

s and mounted in nacelles cowlings midway between the wings. The lower wing was slightly decreased in span so the outboard interplane struts leaned outwards. The other alteration was to the main undercarriage, which was now mounted under the engines, providing a wide track . The Vellore III could also be operated as a seaplane with single-step floats replacing the wheels. A second twin-engined Vellore was built, differing only in having slightly higher compression Jupiter IX engines and eventually known as the Vellore IV. This aircraft was in use until early 1935, transporting troops and stores between Martlesham and nearby Orfordness. Vickers 212 Vellox on ground

The last aircraft of the series was based on a partially completed third twin-engined Vellore airframe, fitted with a new, broader fuselage with an enclosed cockpit, and cabin windows for the passenger compartment, and was powered by

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 ...

IM3 radials. This variant was renamed the Vickers Vellox, flying for the first time on 23 January 1934 in the hands of

Mutt Summers Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers, (10 March 1904 – 16 March 1954) was chief test pilot at Vickers-Armstrongs and Supermarine. During his career, Summers flew many first flights on prototype aircraft, (a record of 54 by a test pilot), from the S ...

Operational history

Vickers had hoped to sell the Vellox as a ten-passenger airliner and the new fuselage had five windows per side in front of large starboard side freight doors at the wing trailing edge, but the sole example was used by Imperial Airways as a freighter, mailplane, and for testing

Lorenz beam The Lorenz beam was a blind-landing radio navigation system developed by C. Lorenz AG in Berlin for bad weather landing. The first experimental system had been installed in 1932 at Berlin- Tempelhof Central Airport and was demonstrated at the Inte ...

. The Vellox crashed shortly after takeoff from

Croydon Airport Croydon Airport was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. It opened in 1920, located near Croydon, then part of Surrey. Built in a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style, it was developed as Britain's main airp ...

in August 1936 due to a loss of power possibly as a result of a fuel problem.Commercial Aviation
''Flight'' 17 December 1936 p662 The crew of two pilots and two wireless operators was killed.

Variants

;Vellore I (Type 134) :Jupiter-powered single-engine freighter, one built. ;Vellore II/Jaguar-Vellore (Type 166) : Jaguar IV-powered single-engine freighter for Australia flight, one built. ;Vellore III (Type 172) :Jupiter XIF-powered twin-engine freighter, one built. ;Vellore IV (Type 173) :Jupiter XIF-powered twin-engine mailplane, one built. ;Vellox (Type 212) :Pegasus-powered twin-engined airliner, one built.

Specifications (Vellore III)

Vickers Vellore 3-view NACA Aircraft Circular No

References

Citations

Bibliography

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To Australia in a fortnight
{{Vickers aircraft 1920s British civil aircraft

Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1928 Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear