Vickers Viking

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Vickers Viking

Vickers Viking IV of the Royal Canadian Air Force, 1926
Type	amphibian
Manufacturer	Vickers
Maiden flight	1919
Produced	1919-1923

The Vickers 54 Viking was a single-engined amphibious aircraft designed for military use shortly after World War I.

Research on Vickers' second amphibious aircraft type began in December 1918 with tests of alternative fuselage/hull designs occurring in an experimental tank at St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A prototype, registered G-EAOV, was a 5-seat cabin biplane with a pusher propeller driven by a Rolls-Royce motor. Sir John Alcock died taking this aircraft or another early example to the Paris exhibition on 18 December 1919, whilst trying to land at Cote d'Everard, near Rouen, Normandy in foggy weather.

The next example, G-EASC, known as the Viking II, had a greater wing span and a 360 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII motor. The Viking III machine, piloted by Captain Cockerell, won first prize in the amphibian class in Air Ministry competitions held in September and October, 1920. The Viking IV incorporated further refinements and had a wider cabin above a hull one foot wider, an example being G-EBBZ in which Ross Smith and J.M. Bennett (partners in the 1919 England to Australia flight) died on 13 April 1922 just outside the Brooklands racetrack near Weybridge in Surrey. Most of these Mark IV Vikings had a Napier Lion engine.

The last Viking amphibians were built during 1923, but the name was re-used for the twin-piston engined Vickers VC.1 Viking airliner some 22 years later, which saw service as the Valetta with the RAF and other air arms. Some Viking amphibians were built by Canadian Vickers Limited, a subsidiary company in Montreal with no previous plane making experience.