Scanned from a glass slide dated just 'circa 1926'. Registered to Imperial Airways 15 September 1926. Shortly after take-off from Croydon on a local test flight on 13 July 1928, the aircraft crashed and was burnt out in a field at Purley, Surrey. The pilot and one passenger survived but the other four occupants died in the accident.

Not taken up by Instone Air Line. Registered to Vickers chairman Douglas Vickers, it took part in first King's Cup Air Race in September 1922. Sold to WWI ace Leslie Hamilton for £1000 in January 1926, to be operated on charter flights. G-EBEM disappeared off Italy on a flight to North Africa on 7 May 1926. Hamilton similarly disappeared flying the Fokker F.VIIa G-EBTQ St. Raphael on a westbound Atlantic crossing attempt in 1927. Photo from: Imperial War Museums

The first Vickers Vulcan was delivered on 30 May 1922, and entered service on Instone Air Line's London to Paris route two days later. Instone had some modern ideas, including uniformed staff and 'City of' aircraft names. Photo from: Bibliothèque nationale de France - Gallica

Registered April 1925, to Imperial Airways 15 Sept.1926. Nicknamed 'The Flying Pig' due to its ungainly appearance. After an engine change the previous day, it suffered engine problems shortly after taking off from Croydon on a test flight 13 July 1928, crashed near Purley and burst into flames. The pilot and one passenger survived but the other four passengers died in the accident, which stopped the practice of staff being taken up as passengers on test flights. At the time of the crash, this was the last Vickers Vulcan flying. In the background is Argosy I G-EBLO of Imperial Airways.

The Vickers 74 was a Napier Lion-engined version of the Vickers 61 Vulcan, aka the Flying Pig, and two airframes were built. G-EBLB was initially a freighter but refitted to carry eight passengers. It was the last Vulcan still flying when it crashed near Croydon on 13 July 1928. Although the aircraft was on a test flight following an engine change, there were five joyriding passengers on board and four, plus the pilot, were killed. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

Qantas was coerced into buying two 8-passenger Vickers Vulcans. Nicknamed the Flying Pig, it turned out it flew like one. G-EBET was assembled at Point Cook, Victoria, and flown to Longreach, Queensland, for Qantas to test. It failed dismally, unable to reach the promised altitude even when the payload was halved. Qantas cancelled its order. What happened to -EBET is not recorded. Photo from: National Library of Australia