Vickers Type 207
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}
| {{Infobox Aircraft Begin
| name=Type 207 | image=Vickers 207.jpg | caption= }}{{Infobox Aircraft Type | type=Ship-based torpedo bomber | national origin=United Kingdom | manufacturer=Vickers-Armstrongs | designer=R.K Pierson & Barnes Wallis | first flight=11 January 1933 | introduced= | retired= | status= | primary user= | number built=1 | developed from= | variants with their own articles= }} |
The Vickers Type 207 was a single-engined two-seat biplane designed as a shipborne torpedo bomber to an early 1930s specification. Structurally innovative, only one was built.
Development
The Vickers Type 207 was 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.{{Harvnb|Andrews|Morgan|1988|pages=291–295, 308, 516}}
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 airfoil 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 shipborne role required, together with an arrestor hook and tailwheel. 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 was lost in the first fast diving test on 23 November 1933, when structural breakup was initiated by a tailplane failure. The crew survived. In the end there were no orders for any of the M.1/30 entrants.
Specifications
{{Aircraft specs
|ref={{Harvnb|Andrews|Morgan|1988|p=308}}
|prime units?=imp
|genhide=
|crew=two{{Harvnb|Mason|1994|p=235}}
|capacity=
|length m=
|length ft=43
|length in=7
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|span ft=50
|span in=0
|height m=
|height ft=14
|height in=5
|wing area sqm=
|wing area sqft=724
|wing area note=
|aspect ratio=
|airfoil=
|empty weight kg=
|empty weight lb=5200
|empty weight note=
|gross weight kg=
|gross weight lb=9600
|gross weight note=
|fuel capacity=
|more general=
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=Rolls-Royce Buzzard IIIMS
|eng1 type=water-cooled V-12 engine
|eng1 kw=
|eng1 hp=825
|prop blade number=
|prop name=
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|perfhide=
|max speed kmh=
|max speed mph=159
|max speed kts=
|max speed note=at {{convert|4000|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|cruise speed kmh=
|cruise speed mph=
|cruise speed kts=
|range km=
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|ceiling m=
|ceiling ft=16000
|g limits=
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|climb rate ms=
|climb rate ftmin=
|time to altitude=5 min to {{convert|4000|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|more performance=
|guns= 1× fixed forward-firing 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun and 1 × Lewis gun in rear cockpit
- 1 × {{convert|1800|lb|kg|abbr=on}} torpedo or
- Up to {{convert|2200|lb|kg|abbr=on}} bombs
|avionics=
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{{aircontent
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References
{{commons category|Vickers Type 207}}
=Notes=
{{reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book |title= Vickers Aircraft since 1908 |last1= Andrews |first1= CF |last2=Morgan|first2=E.B.|edition= 2nd |year= 1988|publisher= Putnam|location= London|isbn= 0-85177-815-1}}
- {{cite book |last=Mason |first=Francis K. |title=The British Bomber since 1914 |year=1994 |location=London |publisher=Putnam Aeronautical Books |isbn=0-85177-861-5 }}
{{Vickers aircraft}}
Category:1930s British military aircraft
Category:Single-engined tractor aircraft