
December 1961 to September 1963
Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd
G-ASDS - c/n 453 - a V.843 series Viscount
United Kingdom registered
1 December 1961
After protracted negotiations, an order was placed by The Ministry of Foreign Trade through the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (Machimpex), on behalf of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
The contract was for the supply of six Type 843 aircraft and spares at a total value of £4,500,000.
This was the third of six aircraft.
4 December 1961
US Government representatives (on behalf of President John F Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk) voiced their objections to this sale through the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) at a meeting in Paris, France but were out-voted 7 to 4 by the participating countries.
As a result, the US Government would not allow any equipment manufactured in the USA or from companies from affiliated countries to be fitted to these aircraft.
This resulted in long delays in completing these aircraft compared to those without the equipment and spares restrictions.
8 November 1962
Due to the political nature of this order the aircraft was initially registered to Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd.
8 August 1963
First flight from Hurn Airport, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England.
The test flights added up to 21 hours.
27 August 1963
UK Certificate of Airworthiness (CofA) issued.
31 August 1963
Acceptance flight carried out with CAAC representatives on board which lasted for 55 minutes.
At some point the aircraft was transferred to Wisley Airfield, Surrey, England prior to delivery.
September 1963
Departed from Wisley Airfield, Surrey, England on delivery to CAAC with a British flight crew.
The aircraft was painted white with a polished metal lower half of the fuselage.
It was fitted with integral front 'airsteps'.
The delivery flights totalled up to 41 hours and 45 minutes which included a local demonstration flight on arrival.
On the delivery sector from Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong to Canton (now Guangzhou), China it used the callsign '84303'.
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