December 1957 to December 1973
New Zealand National Airways Corp (NAC)
ZK-BRD - c/n 281 - a V.807 series Viscount
New Zealand registered
11 December 1957
First flight from Brooklands Airfield, Weybridge, Surrey, England.
It landed at Wisley Airfield, Surrey, England for fitting out and test flying.
31 December 1957
Departed from Wisley Airfield, Surrey, England on delivery to New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC) as a Type 807, named as 'City of Wellington'.
It was under the command of Captains H C 'Johnny' Walker, G Harvey and J H Register, Engineers A T Mosley, H Clarkson and Arthur Godfrey Isles and Inspector A Herk.
Captains G Harvey and J H Register had previously travelled to Australia for Viscount flight training with Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA).
It was fitted with Rolls-Royce Dart RDa6 Mark 510 engines and the cabin seating was configured for 60 passengers.
The first NAC Viscount
to arrive in New Zealand
10 January 1958
Stopped at Kingsford Smith Airport, Mascot, Sydney, New South Wales during the delivery to New Zealand. There was considerable interest from Australian operators as this was the first V.800 series Viscount to visit Australia.
10 January 1958
Arrived at Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand and officially named as 'City of Wellington' by Lady Isitt after its arrival, even though the name was painted on prior to delivery.
3 February 1958
Entered service from Harewood Airport, Christchuch to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand flown by Captains G Harvey and J H Register. The stewardesses were R B Woodsford and S S Gunn. It departed at 14:15 after a short ceremony and returned at 18:45. The journey took 1 hour 55 minutes which was a vast improvement on the 3 hours 20 minutes previously taken by a Douglas DC-3.
12 June 1958
Set a new record for the service from Harewood Airport, Christchuch, New Zealand to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand. The journey took 1 hour 36 minutes.
Suffered a landing incident
at Whenuapai, Auckland,
New Zealand
Noted with 'Flagship' titles applied to both sides of the forward fuselage in red.
12 November 1958
Suffered a landing incident at Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand flown by Captains H C Walker and P A Matheson. After the aircraft landed, the training Captain H C Walker in the righthand seat inadvertantly retracted the undercarriage instead of the flaps and it slid off the runway on to the grass on its belly. Sadly the very experienced Captain resigned his position after this incident. He had previously flown Miles M2F Major ZK-ADJ in the 1934 London to Melbourne Air Race. There were no injuries amongst the 60 passengers on board which included NAC pilot R A E Dear who assisted stewardesses A Carpenter and I A Phillips in the evacuation of the cabin down the slides.
17 December 1958
Air tested at Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand after extensive repairs were carried out by NAC and Vickers engineers. It was flown by Captains G Harvey and J H Register.
19 December 1958
Re-entered service from Harewood Airport, Christchurch to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand.
6 July 1959
Made the first landing of a Viscount aircraft at Rongotai Airport, Wellington, New Zealand prior to the airport's commissioning on 20 July 1959. It was flown by Captains L Ransom, G Harvey with Captains J H Register and A C Kenning also on board. They spent the next three days crew training from this airport.
20 July 1959
Operated the first Viscount service from Rongotai Airport, Wellington to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand carrying dignitaries.
8 July 1963
Noted with a revised tail livery and additional titles.
NAC - New Zealand National
Airways Corporation
'Final Viscount' livery
23 November 1965
Conducted the last official scheduled service by an airline to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, New Zealand prior to Mangere (Auckland International Airport) commencing operations the following morning. Whenuapai was re-activated on the weekend of 29 January 1966 when the official opening air pageant took place at Mangere and again on 4 July 1966 when Air New Zealand Douglas DC-8 ZK-NZB crashed on the runway during a takeoff on a fatal training flight.
6 October 1967
Rolled out at Harewood Airport, Christchurch, New Zealand in the new NAC livery.
December 1967
Fitted with a Flight Data Recorder (FDR). This was the first NAC aircraft to have this equipment fitted.
18 January 1973
Made the first and only visit by a Viscount aircraft to Napier Airport, New Zealand when under the command of Captain D W Barr.
20 December 1973
Withdrawn from service at Harewood Airport, Christchurch, New Zealand and immediately sold to British Airways (BA).
Total time 35,477:50 hours and 31,081 total landings.
FURTHER READING
The Illustrated history of New Zealand National Airways Corporation
by Richard Waugh, Peter Layne and Graeme McConnell
 The Illustrated history of New Zealand National Airways Corporation 1947 - 1978
The delivery of New Zealand’s first Viscount by Peter Layne
The delivery of New Zealand’s first Viscount
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