The Vimy was the first aircraft to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.This flyable modern replica was built in 1994 to re-enact the type's three long distance flights of 1919-20. Its first flight was made on July 30 1994 at Hamilton AFB, California.
Between 1994 and 2005 the replica completed flights from England to Australia and England to Cape Town, South Africa, as well as a non-stop transatlantic crossing. In 2009, it performed at an airshow in Clifden, Ireland to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the Vimy's transatlantic flight, before retiring to Brooklands Museum for permanent display. The Vickers Vimy was designed as a long-range bomber and was first flown in 1917 but was delivered just too late to see operational use in WW1.
The type remained in front line service until the late 1920s and its pioneering first flights across the Atlantic and from England to Australia and London to Cape Town proved the viability of trans-continental air travel.
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