Vickers 131 Valiant

Vickers Limited

Industry	Aerospace, Defence
Founded	1828
Headquarters	United Kingdom

For the V-bomber, see Vickers Valiant.

File:Vickers 131 Valiant front quarter view.jpg

The Vickers Type 131 Valiant was a British-made general-purpose biplane developed by Vickers Limited in 1927, intended to succeed the Royal Air Force's Airco DH.9A fleet. Despite this aim, it failed to secure production orders, with only one unit constructed and subsequently sold to Chile.

Development and design

Drawing from the experience with the wooden-winged Vickers Vixen biplane—whose wings were susceptible to damage from temperature and humidity variations—Vickers created metal wings for the Vixen, resulting in the Vickers Vivid. Concurrently, they developed an all-metal general-purpose biplane, the Type 131, targeting replacement of the DH.9A. In 1927, the British Air Ministry issued Specification 26/27 for a DH.9A successor that mandated extensive reuse of DH.9A components to reduce costs due to large RAF stocks of spares. Although Vickers submitted the Type 131 design, it did not comply with the requirement to incorporate DH.9A parts and thus was not awarded a prototype contract. Nevertheless, Vickers proceeded to build one prototype privately for evaluation against this specification.

The Vickers 131 Valiant featured a single-bay biplane layout with an entirely metal structure closely related to that of the Vivid. It was equipped with a 492 hp (367 kW) Bristol Jupiter engine and accommodated two crew members in adjacent open cockpits to facilitate communication between pilot and observer. Armament included a fixed Vickers machine gun for the pilot and a Lewis gun mounted on a Scarff ring for the observer, while bomb load capacity reached up to 500 lb (230 kg) under the wings.

The prototype completed its maiden flight by 5 March 1927, and underwent formal assessments alongside competitors from Bristol Aeroplane Company (the Beaver), Fairey Aviation Company (the Fairey Ferret and IIIF), Gloster Aircraft Company (the Goral) and Westland Aircraft (the Wapiti). Initial testing demonstrated favourable handling characteristics, leading to squadron-level trials involving the Ferret, IIIF, Wapiti, and Valiant. Ultimately, the Wapiti was selected as the preferred replacement; the Valiant was dismissed due to its higher cost—approximately 30% more than the Wapiti—and inadequate bombing stability which rendered it unsuitable as an effective bombing platform.

Operational history

In 1928, the Valiant was delivered to Chile for evaluation by the Chilean Air Force, which sought a successor to their Vixen fleet. Although it did not enter mass production, the Chilean authorities acquired the prototype. It subsequently served at the School of Aviation until it was lost in an accident on 29 March 1929.

Operators

Template:Country data Chile

• Chilean Air Force