
October 1957 to February 1967
Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (KLM)
PH-VID - c/n 175 - a V.803 series Viscount
Netherlands registered
June 1955
An order for nine Type 803 was placed by Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (KLM).
This was the 4th aircraft for KLM.
Production Aircraft No. 30 - the 30th production 800 series Viscount built,
was the 5th 800 series Viscount fuselage assembled at Weybridge, Surrey, England,
and the 30th 800 series Viscount assembled at Weybridge, Surrey, England.
Production Order No. F04/803. Sales Order No. F04/83B. Stock Order No. F26/26B.
12 January 1957
Fuselage assembly commenced at Weybridge, Surrey, England.
30 March 1957
Fuselage to Erecting Shop 'E' at Weybridge, Surrey, England.
24 August 1957
First flight from Brooklands Airfield, Weybridge, Surrey, England.
It landed at Wisley Airfield, Surrey, England for fitting out and test flying.
September 1957
Exhibited at the Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC) air show at Farnborough Airfield, Hampshire, England in full KLM livery.
KLM 'diagonal striped tail' livery
19 October 1957
Handed over to Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (KLM) named as 'Otto Lilienthal' with a 53 seat mixed-class cabin.
The original livery had ‘The Flying Dutchman’ titles on the port side and ‘De Vliegende Hollander’ titles on the starboard side.
The cabin seating was later increased to 59/64 all-tourist class configuration.
23 October 1957
Noted at Blackbushe Airport, Hampshire, England carrying out ILS approaches.
9 June 1958
After taking off from London Airport (Heathrow), Middlesex, England on a service to Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands the aircraft was climbing near Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, England when the flight crew suddenly spotted a USAF Douglas C-124 Globemaster II flying in their direction at the same flight level. The flight crew took immediate evasive action to port and a collision was avoided.
25 November 1958
Noted at Gatwick Airport, Surrey, England due to a London Airport (Heathrow) weather diversion. The passengers were transferred to London by coach.
circa 1960
Painted in the new KLM 'diagonal striped tail' livery with ‘KLM - Royal Dutch Airlines’ titles.
11 July 1958
The flight crew mistakenly landed at Torrejon, Spain which is a Spanish Air Force base instead of Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain.
The airports are only a few miles apart.
circa 1965
Painted in the new KLM 'horizontal striped tail' livery.
24 November 1966
Dutch registration cancelled.
1 February 1967
Sold to Aer Lingus.
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