Vickers Aircraft Since 1908

x, 566 pp. This work describes in detail the aircraft designed and built by Vickers since the time when the great shipbuilding and armaments firm was asked by the Admiralty to design and construct a naval rigid airship. In the early period was the famous Gunbus and then the Vimy, which failed to see active service but made history by making the first nonstop aeroplane crossing of the North Atlantic and the first flight between England and Australia. Of special interest are the detailed descriptions of the well-known and little-known designs of the interwar period: the Vernon, Victoria and Valentia which served the Royal Air Force as bomber-transports, the Viking amphibians, the Viastra transports and many others such as the Vespa, which gained the world's height record. The story of the Wellington, the company's most famous aircraft, is told in great detail, and full production lists are included. The period since the Second World War covers the Viking, Viscount, Vanguard and VC10 civil airliners and also the RAF's first service four-jet bomber-the Valiant.