Westbeach Adelaide Airport - The Vickers Vimy Cockpit where Sir Ross Smith sat piloting the aircraft with 68ft 1" wingspan at a maximum speed of 100mph (161kmh) for 28 days in 1919. South Australia
Vickers Vimy G-EAOU is now located in a new space at Adelaide Airport.
It came five months after work began to dismantle the 100-year-old biplane that carried the first all-Australian air crew, including South Australian brothers Sir Keith and Sir Ross Smith along with mechanics Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Darwin – via Singapore at Batavia – in December 1919.
It took the team aboard the Vickers Vimy, largely made of wood lined with fabric, a total of 28 days to complete their journey, with over 18,000 kilometres travelled.
Previously the original Vickers Vimy aircraft – registration G-EAOU – had been preserved in a purpose-built climate-controlled museum at Adelaide Airport. It is now within a section of the Adelaide Airport terminal $200 million expansion.
The aircraft was separated carefully into three main pieces in preparation of the relocation – the two outer wings, and the fuselage and engines with the stub wings.
According to Adelaide Airport, each segment of the plane was wrapped, and scaffolding was built in order to carry the weight and protect the structure during the move.
Local art restoration and conservation centre Artlab Australia with the task of carrying out the careful deconstruction, relocation, and piecing back together of the aircraft.
Author and aviation history specialist David Crotty has been appointed as the exhibition curator, while leading South Australian architecture firm Baukultur and exhibition design specialists Arketype have designed the new exhibition space for the Vickers Vimy.
Ref: Australian Aviation author Hannah Dowling.
Westbeach Adelaide Airport - The Vickers Vimy Cockpit where Sir Ross Smith sat piloting the aircraft with 68ft 1" wingspan at a maximum speed of 100mph (161kmh) for 28 days in 1919. South Australia
Vickers Vimy G-EAOU is now located in a new space at Adelaide Airport.
It came five months after work began to dismantle the 100-year-old biplane that carried the first all-Australian air crew, including South Australian brothers Sir Keith and Sir Ross Smith along with mechanics Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Darwin – via Singapore at Batavia – in December 1919.
It took the team aboard the Vickers Vimy, largely made of wood lined with fabric, a total of 28 days to complete their journey, with over 18,000 kilometres travelled.
Previously the original Vickers Vimy aircraft – registration G-EAOU – had been preserved in a purpose-built climate-controlled museum at Adelaide Airport. It is now within a section of the Adelaide Airport terminal $200 million expansion.
The aircraft was separated carefully into three main pieces in preparation of the relocation – the two outer wings, and the fuselage and engines with the stub wings.
According to Adelaide Airport, each segment of the plane was wrapped, and scaffolding was built in order to carry the weight and protect the structure during the move.
Local art restoration and conservation centre Artlab Australia with the task of carrying out the careful deconstruction, relocation, and piecing back together of the aircraft.
Author and aviation history specialist David Crotty has been appointed as the exhibition curator, while leading South Australian architecture firm Baukultur and exhibition design specialists Arketype have designed the new exhibition space for the Vickers Vimy.
Ref: Australian Aviation author Hannah Dowling.