Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount
1948 - 2008 - Introduction
Prototype Viscount G-AHRF over Poole Harbour during an early test flight
The Vickers-Armstrongs Viscount was really born during
World War II - at a time when things were going far from well and few people were
thinking much about civil aviation. To some people in 1942 it may have seemed strangely
unrealistic of the British Government to appoint a group of experts, known as the
Brabazon Committee
, to examine post-war requirements
for transport aircraft. In their recommendations, however, lay the origin of an
idea that was to develop into one of the most successful British civil aircraft
ever built. Among the design proposals that they put forward during the next few
years was for a short and medium range airliner, suitable for use on the European
and other routes which embrace the heaviest traffic and involve the largest scale
of business in civil aviation. It was described as 'a 24-passenger aircraft, powered
by four gas turbine engines driving airscrews'. That was in 1945.
The first turboprop flight in the world was on a modified Gloster Meteor fighter
In the same year, Rolls-Royce flew the first turbo-prop engines in the world, two modified
Derwent turbo-jets named 'Trent' powering a Gloster Meteor fighter, and encouraged by the
results began the design of the 'Dart' engines which were to power the Viscount.
Vickers-Armstrongs was one of several aircraft manufacture's who had been following the Brabazon
reports. By the end of World War II their Vilking was already looked on by Vickers as little
more than an interim aircraft. It had been developed from their Wellington bomber in order to
fill the immediate post-war requirements of the airlines, and although as a stop-gap it was
quite adequate, its time was running out. Their design staff under the leadership of Rex
Pierson and his successor George (later Sir George) Edwards set about creating an entirely new
airliner for the World's medium-stage markets.
Vickers Wellington
Vickers Viking
