Vickers Valentia

The Vickers Valentia was a 1920s British flying boat designed during the First World War. Three prototypes were built by Vickers at its Barrow works, ordered in May 1918 as a possible replacement for the Felixstowe F.5, with the hull built by S.E. Saunders at Cowes. It was a large machine with five crew, a span of 112 feet and two 650 hp Rolls-Royce Condor engines. The first, N124, flew on 5 March 1921 when Stanley Cockerell began test flying it over the Solent, and was damaged on landing in June 1921 and dismantled. The second, N125, made a forced landing on its delivery flight on 15 March 1922. The third, N126, was delivered in 1923, used for trials and withdrawn in November 1924; its hull later became a houseboat at Felixstowe Ferry. The name was later reused for the Vickers Type 264 Valentia transport.