The Vickers Vernon 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 ...

troop carrier used by 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 ...

. It entered service in 1921 and was the first dedicated troop transport of the RAF. The Vernon was a development of the Vickers Vimy Commercial, a passenger variant of the famous Vickers Vimy

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 ...

, and was powered by twin

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 engine, W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept ...

engines or

Rolls-Royce Eagle The Rolls-Royce Eagle was the first aircraft engine to be developed by Rolls-Royce Limited. Introduced in 1915 to meet British military requirements during World War I, it was used to power the Handley Page Type O bombers and a number of oth ...

VIII engines. 55 were built. In February 1923, Vernons of Nos. 45 and 70 Squadrons RAF airlifted nearly 500 troops to

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, Iraq after the civilian area of that town had been overrun by Kurdish forces. This was the first-ever strategic airlift of troops. Vernons of No. 45 Squadron had bomb racks and sights fitted. In May 1924 the squadron was officially designated No. 45 (Bombing) Sqdn. Vernons were replaced by Vickers Victorias from 1927.

Variants

;Vernon Mk I : military transport aircraft powered by two V-12

VIII piston engines. ;Vernon Mk II : military transport aircraft powered by two W-12

II piston engines. ;Vernon Mk III : military transport aircraft powered by two high compression W-12 Napier Lion III piston engines.

Operators

; *

** No. 45 Squadron RAF ** No. 70 Squadron RAF

Specifications (Vernon)

References

* * * * * * * {{Vickers aircraft 1920s British military transport aircraft Vernon Biplanes Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear

Variants

Operators

Specifications (Vernon)

See also

References