Designed by R.K Pierson & Barnes Wallis, the Vickers Type 207 was a single-engined two-seat biplane. Often known as the Vickers M.1/30, for it was built to Air Ministry specification for a carrier based torpedo bomber to replace the Blackburn Ripon. The Air Ministry paid Vickers for a single prototype; its competitors were the Blackburn M.1/30 and the Handley Page H.P.46.

Like Blackburn, Vickers chose the 825 hp (615 kW) Rolls Royce H10 engine, later called the Buzzard IIIMS, a liquid cooled V-12 to power their aircraft. The Type 207 was a single bay biplane, without sweep or stagger and with wings of almost equal span. The upper wing carried Handley Page slots and Frise ailerons; the lower wing alone had dihedral. Both wings used the relatively thick and still novel Raf34 aerofoil section; they folded for storage. The rudder was balanced and the braced tailplane carried aerodynamic servo-assisted elevators operated via trailing edge tabs. Barnes Wallis had recently been appointed chief structural engineer for Vickers aircraft and he brought to the Type 207 new methods of duralumin construction in both wings and fuselage from his previous work on airships. Typically, these structures were complicated but light. The aircraft was fabric covered throughout.

The upper wing was well above the fuselage, braced to it by two pairs of V-form struts on either side; two single struts from the same points on the upper fuselage braced each lower wing. The pilot sat below the wing leading edge and the observer, equipped with a Lewis gun, sat well aft. The split axle undercarriage allowed torpedo dropping from under the aircraft and was fitted with wheel brakes as its ship-borne role required, together with an arrester hook and tail wheel. The Buzzard’s underslung radiator was positioned between the forward undercarriage legs.

The Type 207 flew for the first time on 11 January 1933, with Mutt Summers at the controls. The only notable modification was the addition of 2o of dihedral to the previously flat upper wing. The aircraft but neither of its crew was lost in the first fast diving test on 23 November 1933, when structural breakup was initiated by a tailplane failure. In the end there were no orders for any of the M.1/30 entrants.

Only one was built.

Engine: 1 × Rolls Royce Buzzard IIIMS, 825 hp (615 kW)
Wingspan: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
Length: 43 ft 7 in (13.69 m)
Height: 14 ft 5 in (14.42 m)
Wing area: 724 sq.ft (67.3 sq.m)
Empty weight: 5,200 lb (2,359 kg)
Gross weight: 9,600 lb (4,354 kg)
Maximum speed: at 4,000 ft (1,220 m) 159 mph (256 km/h)
Rate of climb: to 4,000 ft (1,220 m) 800 ft/min (4.1 m/s)
Armament:
1× 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun
1×torpedo of a 2000 lb (907 kg) or 1000 lb (453 kg) bomb under fuselage; or 4×500 lb ((227 kg)bombs under inner wings
Crew: 2

In the mid ‘twenties, the British Air Ministry found attractive the possibility of the 37mm COW (Coventry Ordnance Works) gun for use against bombers. Accordingly, Specification F.29/27 was issued calling for a single-seat dedicated bomber-interceptor armed with this large and heavy weapon. The specification called for the gun to be mounted in a fixed position to fire forward and upward at an oblique angle of at least 45°. Provision was to be made for oversize and automatically-fed ammunition clips totalling 50 shells, the entire COW gun mechanism had to be easily accessible to the pilot and steadiness as a gun platform was a prime requisite. Vickers submission to this Specification, the Type 161, was extraordinary in that it reverted to the long-abandoned pusher biplane formula with tail surfaces carried by booms. Despite its archaic configuration, however, the Type 161 embodied some advanced features and became the subject of a single-aircraft Air Ministry contract. An unequal-span two-bay biplane with comparatively high aspect ratio wings with duralumin plate and tube structure, it had a metal mono-coque nacelle, accommodating the pilot to port and the COW gun to starboard, which was faired into the upper wing and raised above the lower wing by splayed N-type struts. The 530hp Bristol Jupiter VIIF nine-cylinder radial carried at the rear of the nacelle drove a four-bladed propeller, aft of which was a curious, long tapered cone which, intended to promote directional stability, was supported by struts from the tubular tail-booms and the tailplane. The Type 161 was flown for the first time on 21 January 1931, and after provision of a broader-chord rudder, it flew extremely well, arriving at Martlesham Heath in September 1931 for official evaluation. Development was discontinued when official interest in promoting the quick-firing COW gun lapsed.

Max take-off weight: 1520 kg / 3351 lb
Empty weight: 1080 kg / 2381 lb
Wingspan: 9.75 m / 32 ft 0 in
Length: 7.16 m / 24 ft 6 in
Height: 3.76 m / 12 ft 4 in
Wing area: 25.08 sq.m / 269.96 sq ft
Max. speed: 298 km/h / 185 mph

Effectively the seventh Type 143 airframe, the Type 177 was intended as a single-seat shipboard fighter to Specification 21/26 – for which the Type 141 was also a contender – and flew for the first time on 26 November 1929. Powered by a 540hp Bristol Jupiter XFS nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine, the Type 177 was purely a private venture and was the final development in the line of Vickers single-seat tractor-engined fighter biplanes. Armament comprised the standard pair of synchronised 7.7mm Vickers machine guns. On 20 May 1930, the Type 177 demonstrated a terminal velocity dive from 6100m in which it attained a speed of 483km/h, and, in the following month, deck landing trials were performed aboard HMS Furious. Unaccustomed to steerable hydraulic brakes – an innovation featured by the Type 177 – one pilot applied the brakes too harshly and put the aircraft on its nose, after which these trials were discontinued. The Type 177 proved unacceptable for shipboard use and development was discontinued.

Max take-off weight: 1837 kg / 4050 lb
Empty weight: 1286 kg / 2835 lb
Wingspan: 10.44 m / 34 ft 3 in
Length: 8.38 m / 28 ft 6 in
Height: 3.43 m / 11 ft 3 in
Wing area: 31.21 sq.m / 335.94 sq ft
Max. speed: 306 km/h / 190 mph
Range: 756 km / 470 miles

Evolved from the Type 141 to meet a Bolivian requirement which was to result, in 1929, in an order for six aircraft, the Type 143 was flown for the first time on 11 June of that year. The Type 143, known unofficially as the Bolivian Scout, differed from the Type 141 in having squared-off wingtips, longer-span, narrow-chord ailerons, a larger cut-out above the pilot’s cockpit, a split-axle undercarriage, hoop-skids under the inter-plane struts and a modified fuselage faired to a broader oval section to mate with a 450 hp Bristol Jupiter VIA nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. As with the Type 141, the upper wing centre section was carried above the fuselage on splayed, cross-braced struts, the fuselage being supported above the lower wing by N-type struts. Construction was all metal and armament comprised two 0.303-in (7,7-mm) Vickers guns firing through troughs in the fuselage sides. The first of the six Type 143 fighters for Bolivia’s Cuerpo de Aviation reached El Alto, La Paz, in January 1930, the sixth having been fitted with a Jupiter VII for Air Ministry trials at Martlesham Heath before being re-engined with a Jupiter VIA for shipment to Bolivia. By the time sporadic border disputes between Bolivia and Paraguay in the Chaco Boreal escalated, in June 1932, into full-scale warfare, the Cuerpo de Aviation of the former nation had already written off three of its Type 143s. On 30 September, one of the surviving Type 143s was effectively responsible for the first Paraguayan loss as a result of air-to-air combat – probably the first loss of an aircraft in such circumstances in the history of Latin-American military aviation – when a Wibault 73 received damage that, indirectly, was to lead to its destruction.

Max take-off weight: 1415 kg / 3120 lb
Empty weight: 1019 kg / 2247 lb
Wingspan: 10.36 m / 34 ft 0 in
Length: 8.50 m / 28 ft 11 in
Height: 3.43 m / 11 ft 3 in
Wing area: 31.21 sq.m / 335.94 sq ft
Max. speed: 241 km/h / 150 mph
Ceiling: 6100 m / 20,000 ft

The record-breaking Vickers 142 Vivid general purpose biplane sea plane was later converted to a land plane.

Flown by Capt. Neville Stack and John R. Clifton during 1931 from Heston, West London, it made a series of record-breaking flights to Berlin, Copenhagen, and Warsaw.

The Vivid was later destroyed in a hanger fire at Broomfield Aerodrome, Chelmsford, Essex.

Engine: 590 hp
Seats: 2

The Specification 21/26, issued by the Air Ministry’s Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) on September 30, 1926, called for a “Single Seater Fighter Ship¬-plane for use from HM ships,” fitted with a land undercarriage which could be replaced by floats, and vice versa, within half an hour. The aircraft, which was to have an all metal structure but could be fabric covered, was to be suitable for launch from a catapult and for taking off from and alighting on the deck of an aircraft carrier. It was to have a good degree of positive stability about all axes in both configurations, and tail incidence had to be adjustable in flight to enable the aircraft to fly horizontally at all speeds without attention from the pilot.

It was to be “highly controllable” at all speeds, and especially close to stalling speed, with no tendency to ‘hunt’ in a steep dive. Control had to be adequate to stop an incipient spin when the machine was stalled. A high degree of manoeuvrability in the air and on the ground or water was desired, and it had to respond quickly to the controls while not being tiring to fly. The ailerons were to have the minimum of yawing effect.

As a seaplane, the machine was to have good static stability in the water, and when under tow or running under its own power it was to be stable about all axes at all speeds.

Engines specified were the air cooled Bristol Mercury radial giving 550hp at 2,000rpm or the water cooled Rolls Royce Falcon X giving 480hp at 2,300rpm. The installation had to allow for rapid and easy removal of the engine. The cowling, which also had to be easily removable, had to be finished “to prevent the reflection of light which might betray the presence of the aircraft to the enemy or dazzle the pilot”. A metal propeller was specified.

There was to be tankage for 74 gallons of fuel, plus an easily removed 20 gallon auxiliary tank and a gravity tank of sufficient capacity to allow half an hour’s flight at full power at ground level. An 11 gallon oil tank was to be provided if the Mercury engine was used, or an 81/2 gallon oil tank and a 2.5 gallon reserve water tank for the Falcon.

Alternative exhaust systems for day or night flying were required, and were to be easily changed. The night flying system had to provide adequate silencing and flame damping, while the daytime system was to be “of minimum weight”. Additional equipment to be carried during the acceptance flights weighed 5581b and included a Vickers 0.5in gun and 300 rounds, a Vickers 0.303in gun and 600 rounds, a rocket launching (R/L) tube and six bombs, and flotation gear. A second 0.303in gun with 600 rounds was to be provided for if the 0.5in gun was not available in time.

Minimum performance requirements with this load, using the Mercury, called for a horizontal speed of 132kt (152mph) at 10,000ft and a service ceiling of 23,000ft. With the Falcon X the figures were 127kt (146mph) at 10,000ft and 22,000ft. The length of run to take¬off was not to exceed 47ft in a relative wind of 28kt (32mph), and the aircraft was to become airborne at a speed of 55mph when catapulted in still air. The suitability for launching from a catapult or alighting on the deck of an aircraft carrier was “of first importance”, and the aircraft had to be capable of taking off from a turret or cruiser platform.

For fighting, the pilot was to have the best possible view in all directions, and a good view forward and downwards was required for carrier landings. A clear, unobstructed view forward over the machine’s centreline was needed to enable him to sight the fixed guns, the installation of which was to dispense with blast tubes. There was also to be provision for the fitting of a G.3 aerial camera as near to the sights as practicable, and standard clips were to be fitted to allow the new “light carrier” to be installed to carry four 20 lb bombs, sufficient clearance being provided to enable the bombs to be released in a very steep dive.

Despite the emphasis placed on the machine’s naval use, it was stressed that: “The aircraft is to be designed primarily as a landplane fighter and qualities required for this work are not to be sacrificed in order to improve its characteristics when equipped with the float alighting gear”. A padded head support was to be provided to prevent injury to the pilot during catapult launch acceleration.

A limit of 35ft was put on the wing span, the overall length was restricted to 23ft, the height was not to exceed 14ft 9in. Quick and easy removal and erection of the wings was specified, with the ability to remove the wing structure completely in ten minutes and replace it in fifteen minutes.

The contractor was required to provide a full size mock up of his proposed aircraft before constructional work was begun, to enable the Director of Technical Development to examine and approve the layout. This mock up had to include “all parts and components which are likely to interfere with the all round view of the pilot”, and was to show the internal arrangement of the cockpit. Scale model floats for official water tank tests were also to be provided, along with specimens of ribs, a section of wing, and a length of spar.

Tendering for this demanding specification were Armstrong Whitworth, which offered the AW XVI; Fairey, with the Flycatcher II; Gloster, which tendered the Gnatsnapper; Hawker, which offered the Hoopoe; Vickers, with a modified version of its Type 141 Scout; and George Pamall & Co.

After re-engining of the Type 123 with the 510hp Rolls-Royce F.XI 12-cylinder Vee-type water-cooled engine as the Type 141, this fighter became a contender in January 1928 in a competition held at Martlesham Heath to select for the RAF a single-seat fighter meeting the requirements of Specification F.9/26. The Type 141 carried single 7.7mm machine guns in bulged housings on each side of the fuselage beneath the cockpit, and, apart from its engine, it differed from the Type 123 in having a retractable radiator in the forward fuselage in place of the fixed radiator beneath the wing centre section. Although possessing light and responsive controls, and a good performance, the Type 141 was bested by the Bristol Type 105 Bulldog and the Hawker Hawfinch. After its return from Martlesham Heath, the Type 141 was fitted with a revised vertical tail, a chin radiator and shortened rear undercarriage legs (enabling them to be anchored to the front wing spar), and was submitted for deck trials as a shipboard fighter to Specification 21/26. Other modifications included provision of an arrester hook, wheel brakes, interconnected elevators, detachable wing spar joints and hoist attachments. After initial trials, the dihedral of the lower wings was increased from three to five deg in an attempt to improve lateral stability. Sea trials took place aboard HMS Furious in June 1929, but these were not entirely satisfactory, and, after its return to Vickers, the Type 141 was flown in the 1929 King’s Cup Air Race (5-6 July), but was forced to retire, the aircraft subsequently being scrapped.

Although none of the aircraft tendered to Specification 21/26 won a production contract, Hawker went on to develop a Kestrel engined fleet fighter which first flew as the Norn in 1930 and went into production as the Nimrod.

Max take-off weight: 1678 kg / 3699 lb
Empty weight: 1202 kg / 2650 lb
Wingspan: 10.36 m / 34 ft 0 in
Length: 8.23 m / 27 ft 0 in
Height: 2.72 m / 9 ft 11 in
Wing area: 35.12 sq.m / 378.03 sq ft
Max. speed: 285 km/h / 177 mph