Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith’s Vickers Vimy plane en route to new home

The plane used in an iconic flight between England and Australia in 1919 is en route to its new home in Adelaide – and the $6m job to move it there has started.

The historic Vickers Vimy plane flown by Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith is ready for its final journey, and is set to touch down at a redeveloped part of the Adelaide Airport by April.

Work on the $6m project to move, dismantle and reconstruct the historic plane, currently in a purpose-built hangar hiding away near the airport’s long-term carpark, started on Tuesday.

The aircraft, the first to be flown between England and Australia in 1919, will be moved into a glass-walled room in the international terminal, visible from ground level and inside the terminal.

Artlab Australia, a South Australian government ­agency, has taken on the difficult task.

Project manager Ian Miles said the aircraft would be separated into three major components and wrapped to maintain a stable environment similar to the hangar.

“The adhesives used in the timber-frame structure are more than 100 years old and extremely fragile … we also have to try not to put our fingers through any of the fabric in the process,” Mr Miles said.

Members of the Vickers Vimy project team dismantling the plane at Adelaide Airport. Picture Lev Luo

“We have 70mm either side (to get the aircraft out) … it’s tight, but we will get it out of that building.”

In 1919, the Smith brothers, accompanied by mechanics Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers, were the first to fly from England to Australia in the Great Air Race, winning a £10,000 prize.

In 2018, Andy Thomas and retired air chief Marshal Angus Houston became patrons of a community push to move the plane to a more prominent site.

Ross and Keith Smith, James Bennett, Wally Shiers and supporters with their converted Vickers Vimy plane just before take-off at Hounslow Heath. Picture: State Library of South Australia

There are only two Vickers Vimy planes left in the world, the other being Alcock and Brown’s Vimy at the British Science Museum.

Mr Miles said the dismantled plane would be moved from the hangar to the airport on chassis units and that would likely happen overnight in March after flight curfew.

Artlab Australia project manager Ian Miles looking after the dismantling of the Vickers Vimy at the Adelaide Airport. Picture Lev Luo

Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox said the project would be “painstaking”, but rewarding.

“I sort of liken the job to a Meccano set you had when you were a kid, it’s just that there is no instruction booklet,” Mr Cox said.

Artist's impression of the planned new home for the historic Vickers Vimy aircraft at Adelaide Airport. Picture supplied by Adelaide Airport

“And the stakes are a bit higher because if you have left over bolts in the end you are going to have problems.”

Mr Miles hopes the plane will be rebuilt by April. A public exhibition is expected to start by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, The Advertiser reported that the family home of the Smith Family on Stephen Tce, Gilberton, faced the wrecking ball. The home, known as Aviemore, is where the brothers’ friends and families came to celebrate their triumphs.