Vickers Viking The Vickers Viking was a British single - engine amphibious aircraft designed for military use shortly after World War I . Later versions of the aircraft were known as the Vickers Vulture and Vickers Vanellus . Design and development . Research on Vickers ' first amphibious aircraft type began in December 1918 with tests of alternative fuselage / hull designs occurring in an experimental tank at St Albans in Hertfordshire , England . A prototype , registered G - EAOV , was a five - seat cabin biplane with a pusher propeller driven by a Rolls - Royce Falcon water - cooled V 12 engine . Sir John Alcock died taking this aircraft to the Paris exhibition on 18 December 1919 , whilst trying to land at Côte d ' Evrard , near Rouen , Normandy in foggy weather . The next example , G - EASC , known as the Viking II , had a greater wing span and a 360 hp Rolls - Royce Eagle VIII motor . The Viking III machine , piloted by Captain Stan Cockerell , won first prize in the amphibian class in Air Ministry competitions held in September and October , 1920 . The Type 54 Viking IV incorporated further refinements and had a wider cabin above a hull one foot wider , an example being G - EBBZ in which Ross Smith and J . M . Bennett ( partners in the 1919 England to Australia flight ) died on 13 April 1922 just outside the Brooklands racetrack near Weybridge in Surrey . Most of these Mark IV Vikings had a Napier Lion engine . The next version was the Viking V ; two were built for the RAF for service in Iraq . A further development with a redesigned wing structure using the 450 hp ( 340 kW ) Napier Lion would have been the Viking VI ( Vickers designation Type 78 ) but known as the Vulture I . A second with a Rolls - Royce Eagle IX ( 360 hp , 270 kW ) was the Type 95 Vulture II . Both Vultures were used for an unsuccessful around the world attempt in 1924 after the Eagle engine of the Vulture II was replaced with a Lion . With registration G - EBHO , the first set off from Calshot Seaplane Base on 25 March 1924 , the other was shipped as a spare machine to Tokyo . After mechanical difficulties in earlier stages G - EBHO crashed at Akyab where it was replaced by G - EBGO on 25 June . Encountering heavy fog on the Siberian side of the Bering Sea G - EBGO crashed . Vickers salvaged a large proportion . The Viking Mark VII ( " Type 83 " in Vickers numbering ) was a development of the Vulture , a three - seat open - cockpit fleet spotter to Air Ministry specification 46 / 22 given the service name Vanellus when taken on for evaluation by the RAF against the Supermarine Seagull design . Operational history . The last Viking amphibians were built during 1923 , but the name was re - used for the twin - engine VC . 1 Viking airliner some 22 years later , which saw service as the Valetta with the RAF and other air arms . Some Viking amphibians were built by Canadian Vickers Limited , a subsidiary company in Montreal with no previous aircraft manufacturing experience . Their involvement with the Viking led to a future line of indigenous flying boats beginning with the Canadian Vickers Vedette which borrowed heavily on the earlier design . No Vikings survive today although a full - size replica built for the film " The People That Time Forgot " ( 1977 ) is displayed at Brooklands Museum in Surrey .