Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane

The Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplanes were a series of eight single-engined monoplanes built by Vickers before the First World War under a licence bought on 1 January 1911 from the Frenchman Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Vickers redrew the French design in imperial measurements and built the first example at Erith, Kent, which made its maiden flight at Joyce Green near Dartford in July 1911. It was a shoulder-winged, tandem two-seat machine with a steel-tube fuselage, wing warping and a five-cylinder R.E.P. fan engine of 60 horsepower. Most served as underpowered trainers at the Vickers Flying School at Brooklands, and the second was taken to Antarctica without wings by Douglas Mawson as a sledge tractor.