Editing Vickers Vimy (section)

===Vimy Commercial===
[[File:Vickers Vimy Commercial in flight.jpg|thumb|Vickers Vimy Commercial in flight]]
[[File:Vickers Vimy Commercial on ground.jpg|thumb|Vickers Vimy Commercial on the ground]]
[[File:Vickers Vimy Commercial cabin 120220 p191.jpg|thumb|Airliner cabin]]

The '''Vimy Commercial''' was a civilian version with a larger-diameter fuselage (largely of [[spruce]] plywood), which was developed at and first flew from the [[RAF Joyce Green|Joyce Green airfield]] in [[Kent]] on 13 April 1919. Initially, it bore the interim civil registration ''K-107'',{{sfn|Andrews|Morgan|1988|page=95}} later being re-registered as ''G-EAAV''.{{sfn|Jackson|1988|page=202}}

The prototype entered the 1920 race to Cape Town; it left Brooklands on 24 January 1920 but crashed at [[Tabora]], [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]] on 27 February.{{sfn|Jackson|1988|page=202}}

In 1919, the Chinese Government placed a large order for aircraft with Vickers, including 100 Vimy Commercials, which was cut to 40 Vimy Commercials when the final contract was signed in 1920.{{sfn|Andersson|2008|page=14}} A Chinese order for 100 is particularly noteworthy; forty of the forty-three built were delivered to China, but most remained in their crates unused, and only seven were put into civilian use.

Five [[Napier Lion]]-powered air ambulance versions of the Vimy Commercial were built for the RAF as the Vimy Ambulance.{{sfn|Andrews|Morgan|1988|pp=37–98, 510}} Fifty-five more bomber-transport versions of the Vimy Commercial were built for the RAF as the [[Vickers Vernon]].{{sfn|Andrews|Morgan|1988|pp=98, 511c}}

====Role in the Second Zhili–Fengtian War====
After the [[First Zhili–Fengtian War]], 20 Vimy Comercial were secretly converted into bombers under the order of the [[Zhili clique]] warlord [[Cao Kun]], and later participated in the [[Second Zhili–Fengtian War]].<ref name="second zhili-fengtian war">[http://cwlam2000hk.sinaman.com/caf05.htm "我國最早航運機隊主力 －商用維美運輸機"(Vickers Vimy Commercial in Chinese language)] ''sinaman.com.'' Retrieved: 15 March 2008.</ref>

During the war these bombers were initially highly successful due to the low-level bombing tactics used, with the air force [[Chief of staff (military)|chief-of-staff]] of the Zhili clique, General [[Zhao Buli]] (趙步壢) personally flying many of the missions.  However, on 17 September, returning from a successful bombing mission outside [[Shanhai Pass]], General Zhao's aircraft was hit by ground fire from the [[Fengtian clique]] in the region of Nine Gates (Jiumenkou, 九門口) and had to make a forced landing. Zhao made a successful escape back to his base, but the bombers subsequently flew at much higher altitude to avoid ground fire, which greatly reduced their bombing accuracy and effectiveness.<ref name="second zhili-fengtian war"/>

After numerous battles between Chinese [[Warlord Era|warlords]], all of the aircraft fell into the hands of the Fengtian clique, forming its ''First Heavy Bomber Group''.<ref name="second zhili-fengtian war"/> These were in the process of being phased out at the time of the [[Mukden Incident]] and therefore were subsequently captured by the Japanese, who soon disposed of them.