Britain's Best Interwar Bomber (No, Really!) | Vickers Virginia

Today we're taking a look at the Vicker's Virginia, a British Heavy bomber that operated for most of the interwar period. Its life began...poorly, but things improved and it eventually became an excellent machine, contributing much to research and development with the RAF and AAEE.
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Recommended reading:
Vickers Aircraft Since 1908 - amzn.to/3J9gFNv
The British Bomber Since 1914 - amzn.to/3Uwx6dD

[@RexsHangar]

F.A.Q Section - Ask your questions here :) Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: How do you decide what aircraft gets covered next? A: Supporters over on Patreon now get to vote on upcoming topics such as overviews, special videos, and deep dives. Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.

[@Wookie120]

I forget, have you covered the ME 410 yet, and possible the DO335?

[@SteveMichaels]

Black Widow night fighter or PBY

[@FMKeb]

Henschel Hs129 pls

[@vodaploda]

Have you done anything on the Westland Wendover?

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@vodaploda a.k.a. "The Sam"?

[@nethascotx24]

Sounds weird, but it’s always a good day when you see an aircraft review for a plane you’ve never heard of

[@TheCatBilbo]

Indeed, this is why the channel is excellent; I'm pretty good on aviation but am constantly learning!

[@LeeBrasher]

It sounds weird that you think that sounds weird, tbh. 😁

[@towgod7985]

Weird, .......no. Always a good day when a video from Rex,......yes.

[@DIREWOLFx75]

Agreed.

[@alias_aka_alias]

Imagine getting trained in a Virginia in '38 and just a five years later you fly in a Lancaster. Must've been a crazy upgrade.

[@kenjones2973]

Absolutely. think of the fighter pilots that trained and started their careers on Gloster Gladiators and, if still alive were fanging about in the Spitfire mk14 or Hawker Tempest only 5 to 6 years later.

[@dallesamllhals9161]

or an Avro Manchester!?

[@mathewwatts7027]

​@kenjones2973 look at some of the US pilots that started on stearmans in the early 40's and were flying phantoms in vietnam

[@classicalextremism]

Imagine getting your new squadron worked up in Virginia's in '38 only to see photos in magazine articles of the US Army's new B-17, also being made operational that year.

[@johncitizen306]

​@@mathewwatts7027 no

[@seanmorgan1759]

VIRGINIA GUNNER: "Will I be serving aboard an aircraft, sir?" AIR MINISTRY: "You'll be serving in... the _vicinity_ of an aircraft, yes."

[@TheCatBilbo]

Given Chris's recent period of illness, I was really hoping this was going to be about the Vickers Vicks 'VapoRub' Mk II... "I love the smell of Menthol & Eucalyptus in the morning" - said no one, ever 😊

[@darkknight1340]

The Vapo rub mk 11, which was slated to be replaced by the Bristol Benylin.

[@boomboomf2268]

I guess I'm weird because I actually like the smell of Vicks

[@TheCatBilbo]

​@@darkknight1340Ah, hole in one, Sir! 😊

[@TheCatBilbo]

​@@boomboomf2268I do really 😊

[@MM22966]

When Rex said "...to 1938" at the start, I thought I misheard him!

[@DIREWOLFx75]

Parachute flight testing until 1941...

[@MM22966]

@@DIREWOLFx75 No worries about proper door exits when there is no door!

[@DIREWOLFx75]

Nearly 2 decades of service for a plane during a time with such extremely rapid development, that is VERY impressive.

[@MM22966]

That tail gun position....When you consider it was a wood frame and the extra weight out on the very end of that narrow tail, that thing must have flexed up & down like a see-saw in flight.

[@oldschool8798]

Imagine you're in one of these in late 1937, early '38, say on a training flight over the North Sea, and a 109 goes by.

[@marklawes1859]

New underwear time I would think?

[@demonicsquid7217]

Was the 109 floating on the sea due to running out of fuel?

[@stevetournay6103]

If the 109 was going the opposite direction it would flash by so quickly the Virginia crew mightn't even have seen it. Also if it was going the same direction as the Virginia...😁

[@oldschool8798]

LOL!@@stevetournay6103

[@kenjones2973]

Now that would put a dent in your day.

[@user-rr4po3he1n]

The length of service has to be seen in the light of rebuilds it had. It was like owning an old broom which has had 2 new handles and 3 new heads over its service. The Virginia over its service was rebuilt several times. Lengthened, gunners added/removed, wings modified, old models metalized to the latest standard. Systems and upgrades in general.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

The bomber of Theseus!

[@drstevenrey]

After almost 20'000 hours in the air my left ear is nearly deaf, down to about 5 %. And this is in closed cabin aircraft and headsets. But the noise on your left side from the wind will cause this eventually. I don't even want to imagine the disabilities these guys suffered past 40 from flying in open top aircraft.

[@MrDdaland]

I've been a aircraft mechanic for 45 years, and can confidently say that conversations between colleagues consists mostly of "what did you say?"

[@FirstLast_Nba]

The period between the 2 world wars was truly an amazing time for development and experimentation in technology in all military arms, but especially for aviation.

[@darkknight1340]

I am currently scratch building a 1/48 Virginia. This video is very informative in that respect.Incidentally,you mentioned the comedic sight of a catapult launched Lancaster,unfortunately,not becoming a commonplace spectacle,however,catapult experiments were carried out on the Manchester.

[@ianbeedles1329]

Are you working from a set of plans (if so, where from?) as I've been planning on converting a Airfix Vimy to a Virginia Mk X to depict one of the aircraft of the Parachute Test Flight at RAF Henlow.

[@darkknight1340]

@ianbeedles1329 I am working primarily from photographs and have the main dimensions of the aircraft,sizewise. It's very similar to the Handley Page 0/400 I sized up the Airfix 1/72 instructions to get an idea of the dimensions of the engine nacelle,which are almost identical to those of the Virginia.

[@oboyles]

Carry out boarding actions - brilliant!

[@TexJester-no8th]

Avast, ye scoundrel! Heave to and prepare to be boarded!!

[@judgemental9253]

I just about fell over when I heard that😂

[@167curly]

It is incredible that relic lasted until 1938.

[@mjc8281]

Heavy Bombers can do that... It blows my mind when I think the B52's first flight was 49 years after the Wright Brothers first flight and..... 72 years ago next Monday!

[@towgod7985]

It's only considered a relic if it was still around but of no use. The Virginia did yeoman duty till the day it was stood down from active service. That is the benchmark for a watershed aircraft.

[@jimattrill8933]

My father joined the RAF in 1922 and worked as a Fitter IIe and I until 1958. He liked the RR Eagle in the Vimy and the Napier Lion in the Virginia.

[@johnusher1921]

We may not have had a catapult-launched Lancaster, but it was part of the design brief for the Manchester, and was tested!

[@kevanhubbard9673]

Never heard of the Vickers Virginia before.Very old fashioned for 1938 mind so was the more modern Heyford!

[@mickles1975]

Sitting in the wind at 10,000 feet? I'm glad I didn't have to do it.

[@ianbeedles1329]

Just watched your extra long vid, where you give a brief mention of the 'Virginia' during the description on the Vimy, and thought to myself, "hope Rex does one on the Virginia", when BAM! KZbin tells me you've just uploaded one! (Spooky😂) I am familiar with this aircraft, and its role, as I served at RAF Henlow during the 1980's/90's as a Mechanical Transport Driver, and the area where we parked our HGV's and coaches had once been the shed where the parachutes were packed before being tested. The ghost story told to new drivers (fresh out of the driving school at RAF St Athan) was that one of the unfortunate pioneer parachutists haunted that area looking for the person who'd packed his 'chute. I'll admit I had a lot of fun scaring fellow MTD's in this area with rattling chains and moving things when they weren't looking 😂 Thanks for another excellent video.

[@morlock2086]

You do a better job of finding and using photos and videos of the actual aircraft than other aviation sites. Thank you.

[@user-js4zx1lr2u]

Here I was, thinking that the dust bin gunnery positions on some aircraft were pretty bizarre, the last Virginia's tail gunner stations have superseded that thinking. Have to admire the old girl, she was a beast for testing new ideas.

[@absalomdraconis]

"Fighting tops", 5:17 : This is the point in the video where I was expecting sanity to intrude. Apparently, that particular ministry had found _countermeasures._

[@John.McMillan]

Hey Rex, could you at some point cover the Soviet anti-tank aircraft attempts? You may have done the Yak-9T before, but I'd like to see you cover the program as a whole, because it's a great example of "throw stuff at a wall until it sticks" that never stuck.

[@Aettaro]

I love that they just had the bright idea to just make it all metal.

[@pencilpauli9442]

It was also the first aircraft to have Ferry tanks, because it was a Virginia 'plane

[@voiceofraisin3778]

Your taxis here, get your coat on the way out!

[@aac7183]

Extra range required for flying down to Rio

[@deaks25]

A fascinating video about an aircraft that probably deserves to be better remembered. It's kind of terrifying that an inter-war biplane bomber almost got stuck with frontline duties at the start of WWII

[@nzs316]

Look at the rigging nightmare! There’s even bracing on the upper wing upper section. Must’ve been a nightmare to tension everything properly.

[@chrisVNZ]

A testbed for quite an extensive list of technologies. Fascinating

[@stevetournay6103]

The folded-over Virginia wreck genuinely looks like the "tail-first" 1908 Santos Dumont 14-bis!

[@philipdove6987]

Your use of what few pictures there are is far superior to some you tubes where they use any old clip to illustrate films, with no thought given to era, country, geography, etc. Some videos lose the plot entirely and misinform because of there ludicrous efforts to have a film clip to illustrate everything. Long live your use ofgood photo's and captions where necessary.

[@kenjones2973]

You must be referring to the swill that Dark Skies is very good at dolloping out

[@garyneilson1833]

Very nice review of an aircraft I hadn't heard about

[@andrewrobinson5837]

Thanks again....I have always been intrigued by the Ginnie, how many changes it went through, and how long it lasted!

[@RREvilMonk]

As always, Great Work! Thanks for the Fun!

[@The_Modeling_Underdog]

Great video, Rex. The Virginia also opened the path to the Vickers Victoria and Valentia bomber/transports through a mix of features with the Vickers Vernon, itself derived from the Vimy. Looking forward to the next one. Cheers.

[@jefmatttab]

Great show as always 👍

[@jayg1438]

Absolutely love the interwar stuff. You do it as well as any. Would love to see you expand beyond UK/USA stuff. The French interwar bomber series were excellent. Think Italy/Japan/Poland/ Germany/ Russia (USSR) etc. Thanks again for these videos. Any WWI and interwar stuff is always welcome! Great job mate!

[@Rincypoopoo]

I love these interwar aircraft. As always a great production. Your videos make me so happy.

[@Wookie120]

Really enjoy your videos and commentaries! Keep up the outstanding work brother!

[@chrisVNZ]

"Do I get to serve on an aircraft?" "On? ... Yes...." "Why did you pause?"

[@jamesharmer9293]

Chocks away chaps! Must have taken some courage to fly these. Hats off to the men that did.

[@sternencolonel7328]

But Vulcan is also a place 😉🖖

[@SteepSix]

And a god

[@thestarlightalchemist7333]

I've been to Vulcan, though I'm not much of a Star Trek fan.

[@wbertie2604]

Yes, there's on in Alberta and one in Virginia. I presume someone looked at a map and Vulcan became Virginia because of the USA town

[@searcaig]

Fascinating history, thanks for posting this one

[@drstevenrey]

As a pilot, flyboy, I would have loved to live in this era. Just imagine flying these 'projects'. Dangerous certainly, exciting definitely.

[@ianbell5611]

Thank you. Another great video

[@grumpyoldsodinacellar3518]

An excellent review thank you

[@stevedrane2364]

Thank you . . Always interesting I appreciate your efforts in to creating these informative videos. 👍

[@malcolmgibson6288]

Thank you for another interesting video.

[@christopping5876]

Excellent, yet again!

[@jonHErickson]

Love the channel, keep it up! 😊

[@jasonz7788]

Great video thank you

[@cartmanrlsusall]

Rex you never disappoint ❤

[@andrewcoley6029]

never heard of this aircraft - very interesting.

[@matthewgordon-clark2392]

well done mate, a well done vid on a lesser know type

[@jimroberts3009]

I wouldn't have wanted to be a tail gunner. Cold, windy and lonely!

[@TheCatBilbo]

So, you've mentioned the good points; what were the bad?...😂

[@paulwoodman5131]

Was there a fuselage tunnel for access? The "Fighting Tops" was clearly lonely. (if it had power suits, I'd be interested)

[@linders2000]

Q: Fokker has a lot of designs (some of them weird and wacky). And my question was how the Dutch did during WW1, Interwar, and WW2 period?

[@stevetournay6103]

Rex, and also Ed Nash, have done some videos on Dutch designs. Some very inventive stuff...

[@lewiswestfall2687]

Thanks Rex

[@daigriffiths399]

Hello Rex A couple of things: there is a video on KZbin showing the in-flight refuelling. Given YT's propensity for deleting posts containing URLs (even to itself), search 'Vickers Virginia Achieves 1st Successful Inflight Re-Fueling'. The second thing is that the Virginia could NOT have been fitted with an autopilot. It would have been fitted with a gyropilot, which is an entirely different beast. Given the dates and your assertion that the autopilot was designed for large bombers, I'm going to stick my neck out and state that it was a Sperry A-2 gyropilot (nobody else was making them as Sperry held the patent and the A-2 was first announced in 1923). A gyropilot can maintain attitude but that's about it. Its three axes were climb/glide, bank and heading and each of the three axes can accept manual input from the crew, but none of them are capable of auto-correction e.g. if the aircraft has drifted from the planned route it due to a crosswind it will still maintain the heading entered into the gyropilot. It was also pneumatically powered, dog-slow to respond (which made the aircraft hunt on heading or pitch changes, something which Sperry acknowledge in the handbook 'Elmer Carries On') and had a tendency to spew hydraulic fluid all over the cockpit floor. Sperry call the electrically operated A-5 their first real autopilot. This was developed for the B-17 and disposed of the pnuematically operated gyroscopes in favour of vacuum tubes and electric gyroscopes. I don't know much about the A-5 gyropilot but I know a lot (too much? 😆) about the A-2 and A-3 gyropilots because of a project I was involved with.

[@Rom3_29]

To brighten the day of airplane historians, Professor Rex digs out another forgotten flying oddity from dark corners of his hanger.

[@russellnixon9981]

Interesting stuff

[@thesalopian1389]

Another great video. Rex, Please cover the SE5a fighter, thanks.

[@williamgreen7415]

Thanks!

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

I hope that those air gunners were also issued with cutlasses, which are often handy in boarding actions.

[@ameliafox9429]

So cool!

[@JGCR59]

That rear gunner position looks like a very cold and lonely place

[@Yordleton]

You gotta love one Rex shouting out another Rex... I'm sure there aren't a lot of you out there. Maybe you two could have bonded over how much you hate being compared to a dinosaur. I can almost sympathize as I've been called "Jake from statefarm" for a greater part of a decade lol.

[@drstevenrey]

If your bomber has a habit of hitting trees, you are definitely not flying high enough. Nonetheless this ship has a great story about it and it actually was quite successful. Respect.

[@demonicsquid7217]

You forgot to mention the one that crashed in the blue rich mountains, clipping a lonesome pine.

[@40over86]

Great video Rex. And a good job making it seem life like while using stills. I wonder, how many other major aircraft were converted to metal half way through their service life?

[@boobah5643]

It's damn impressive for a plane to be used for pretty much the entire interwar period. If I didn't have the Virginia here as an example, I'd've said the rate of technological change prohibited it.

[@Gruoldfar]

Ahh, the pain...i bellylaughed...boardingactions indeed!

[@Luddite-vd2ts]

Talking of all that developmental work, I'd really appreciate a programme on the development of in flight refuelling. I believe it started with hoses being trailled between aircraft! Scared 😮

[@GerardMenvussa]

20:12 TBF that was a pretty impressive take off. You also mentioned heating tubes for the crew, that sounds like a good topic for a video (evolution of these early systems, then maybe even a transition towards modern life-support?). Considering they had no canopy, I'm not even sure what these heating tubes were doing. Heated seats? Heated bodysuits?

[@YvesBouchard]

Clearly this was the 1st true stealth aircraft ! How else can you explain that it served for nearly 20 years with so few people even knowing it existed ?🤔 I'm shocked , honestly, I've always considered myself an admirer of military aviation, especially the RAF....and yet this plane flew right by me .😯 (pun intended.) Well done !

[@therocinante3443]

Insane to think that in less than 30 years, we were going supersonic.

[@bhumiriady]

The more obscure the plane, the more my interest and curiosity are piqued.^^ Thank you so much for covering various aircraft, well known and obscure, Rex! Also, this video made me aware of the Vickers Virginia.^^

[@gabrielneves6602]

Was wafching a mossy earth update abiut the amazon rainforest (its at my doorstep, so im vurios to see what they doing up thwre), but a rex video is a rex video.

[@Ensign_Cthulhu]

2:51 That loaded weight is LESS than that achieved by some marks of the P-47. Just bear that in mind.

[@PhantomLover007]

The arborial crashes have me wondering if those were Virginia eating trees. Charlie Brown would be petrified.

[@rob13854]

Hi mate thanks for another great video, a suggestion if I may. Could you possibly do a video on the Burnelli CB16 monoplane. It looks like a very interesting plane. Thanks, regards Rob T.

[@K4rt80y]

1938! Good God, that's an eternity.

[@builder396]

The gun tops honestly look like somebody took two bathtubs and bolted them onto the wings.

[@michaelwright2986]

On the opportunities for boarding actions: was this before or after American wingwalkers started changing from one aeroplane to another in flight? There's some terrifying footage on YT, including changing wheels on the undercarriage, but I think it's 1930s. So the fighting tops would have been ahead of their time.

[@maciek_k.cichon]

What is that white spatter on 15:48 pigeons or a good paintball practice? Did they use paintball for practice back then anyway?

[@XXfea]

Rex!!!

[@Simwebby]

13 years between the Virginia leaving service and the Canberra entering service!

[@mudcrab3420]

Imagine being in a different 1938 timeline and having Britain declare war on you. Your early warning system detects and incoming raid out to sea of your nation. You scrabble and fly to intercept at point on the coast. And... wait... wait... land... refuel... take off again... wait...

[@furretthefuzzynoodle3896]

Hey Rex any idea if you will ever do the Skyraider? AD-4 to AH-1 depending on the year. I know it’s a bit later in years than you normally do but it had an Interesting development life. Also when that thing was still flying with supersonic jets they obviously did something right 😂

[@user-rr4po3he1n]

Measured take off distances were recorded at between a minim um and maximum of 118 and 185 yards during tests!!!

[@andrewphillips8341]

I am sure a few airmen had a few nicknames for the plane.

[@LeeBrasher]

QUESTION: when you provide range figures, is that radius, or....?

[@gerardlabelle9626]

I’m confused about the “conversion” of a wooden airframe to metal. How is that different than building a whole new airplane?

[@dave_h_8742]

Those magnificent men in their flying machines vibes at around 10/11 mins in Japanese guy flying something with that tail configuration ?

[@johnjephcote7636]

There were a/c similar but with massively deep, bulbous fuselages. I think they were the Hyderabad and the Hinaidi.

[@paulgregg722]

Are you sure you don’t mean the Vickers Valentia, Vernon and Victoria Type 56?

[@matthewgordon-clark2392]

can you do a video on the CAC 15?

[@vodaploda]

Rex, have you done anything on the Westland Wendover ?

[@anzaca1]

The British seem to have a habit of building aircraft that start out badly, namely this and the Manchester, but then turning them into the greatest planes ever.

[@JGCR59]

Did they try to use 8 Barrel Nock guns from those Fighting Tops?

[@garylawson5381]

I wonder how many volunteers there were for gunners on the upper wing!!!😅

[@exharkhun5605]

Counted in Interwar-Airplane-Years it seemed to have been the B-52 of it's day. 😁