Vickers Vildebeest

The Vickers Vildebeest, together with the very similar Vickers Vincent, was a single-engined British biplane designed and built by Vickers and used as a light bomber, torpedo bomber and army cooperation aircraft. It first flew in 1928 and was bought by the Royal Air Force in moderately large numbers from 1931, entering service with No. 100 Squadron at RAF Donibristle in October 1932 as a replacement for the Hawker Horsley. Four front-line torpedo bomber squadrons flew it, two of them in Singapore. The Mark IV used a more powerful 825 hp Bristol Perseus engine but only 18 were made because of cooling problems in the tropics, and the Mark III added a third crew position. A general purpose version, the Vincent, followed, with 197 built or converted between 1934 and 1936. Vildebeests were still in front-line use against Japanese forces over Singapore and Java in 1942, and the last in RAF service, with 273 Squadron in Ceylon, were retired in March 1942.