Visitors to the Royal Air Force Museum London have until March 3rd to view the Museum’s replica Vickers Vimy before it leaves the site and goes into storage in the Museum’s Reserve Collection in Stafford. This is part of an overall project to refurbish the Grahame – White Factory Hangar at the Museum’s Colindale site during which this area of the Museum will be closed to the public.

In May 1967 the Vintage Aircraft and Flying Association decided to build a flying Vimy replica to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Alcock and Brown’s 1919 trans-Atlantic flight in what became known as ‘the Triple First’.

When told of the project Rolls-Royce began a world-wide search for engines. Eventually they recovered three Eagle engines from Dutch canal barges two of which they stripped down and rebuilt; putting the first on bench test in August 1968. The aircraft was completed on Friday 30 May 1969 by and on Tuesday 3 June at 6.40pm the replica aircraft took off on its first flight. On 6th June the aircraft crossed the Channel to appear at the Paris Air Show. On 9 June it returned to the United Kingdom and two days later, after being repainted in service markings, flew to Ringway Airport, Manchester to become the centre of an Alcock and Brown exhibition at that site.

The exhibition lasted a month and on 14 July it was being prepared to fly to the Rolls-Royce test airfield at Hucknall when it caught fire. The fire, which is thought to have been caused by concentrated sunlight on the fabric of the wing, resulted in extensive damage. However, the replica was successfully rebuilt as a static exhibit, never to fly again, and has been on view to the public at the Museum’s London site since 1972.

This aircraft together with the Museum’s Sopwith Tabloid is to be stored in the Museum’s Reserve Collection in Stafford, for the foreseeable future. The building work on the Grahame-White Factory will necessitate that this area of the Museum is closed to the public. It is anticipated that these works will run until the end of November, when the Grahame -White Factory will open again to the public.

www.rafmuseum.org

Tags: 2014, February, News, RAF Museum London