Vickers Vulcan

The Vickers Vulcan was a British single-engine biplane airliner of the 1920s, built by Vickers Limited at Brooklands Aerodrome in Surrey. It carried eight passengers and a pilot. Rex Pierson designed it, and chief test pilot S. Cockerell flew it for the first time in April 1922. It was based on a civil version of the Vimy bomber but with many changes, including a much larger, taller fuselage and one Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engine instead of two, chosen for low operating costs. The fuselage shape and flying characteristics earned it the nickname Flying Pig. The first delivery, in August 1922, went to Instone Air Line, and other operators included Imperial Airways and Qantas, which returned its aircraft because the performance was too poor for its needs. The last Vulcan flying, a Type 74 with Imperial Airways, crashed in July 1928 on a test flight from Croydon.