Vickers Viscount (1952)

The Vickers Viscount was the world’s first turbine-powered airliner.  Powered by four Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines, the prototype first flew on 16 July 1948. Originally to be named the Viceroy, the name was later changed to Viscount to avoid offending a newly independent India. The first scheduled flight by any turbine-powered aircraft was on 29 July 1950 between London Northolt and Paris Le Bourget.

The design was, however, considered too small and the larger Type 700 prototype first flew on 28 August 1950, and orders followed from BEA, Air France and Air Lingus.

The Viscount was popular with passengers because of the lack of vibration from the turbine engines, and the view from the large oval windows. Its reliability appealed to the airlines too and orders flowed in, including from North America – Trans Canada Airlines, later Air Canada, operated over 50 Viscounts. In the USA Capital Airlines, Northeast and Continental were also users. In 1957 Vickers were producing a Viscount every three days. There were several later variants, and by the time production ended in 1963 445 Viscounts had been built, making it Britain’s most successful large airliner of all time, serving with 60 operators in 40 countries. The last flight by a Viscount is believed to have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009.

G-ALWF is the oldest surviving Viscount. The second production aircraft, it made its first flight at Weybridge on 3 December 1952 and was delivered to BEA on 2 February 1953. From 1963  to 1965 it was owned by Channel Airways, who leased it to Tradair and later to British Eagle. It was then sold to Cambrian Airways, who operated it until 1971. By now it was the oldest Viscount in existence, so Cambrian offered it to the Viscount Preservation Trust for display at Liverpool Airport. WF made its final flight from Cardiff to Liverpool on 12 April 1972. By then it had flown almost seven million miles, carrying an estimated 800,000 passengers. When public access at Liverpool had to end because of new security regulations, Duxford Aviation Society offered to move it to Duxford.

A team of DAS volunteers travelled to Liverpool every weekend from November 1975 until January 1976 to dismantle the aircraft so that it could be moved by road to Duxford. Reassembly was completed in mid-1986 and included repainting the aircraft in its original BEA livery. In 2011 the Viscount Preservation Trust transferred ownership to the British Airliner Collection.