02 December 2024
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Viscount Survivors


59 of the 444 Viscounts built survive as complete airframes or major components. Some are in very good condition and are looked after by museums while others are just wrecks. They can be found in 24 countries.

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Established 2005
Vickers Viscount Network
A Virtual Museum dedicated to the Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount

Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount

1948 - 2024 - Introduction

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.

Prototype Viscount c/n 1 G-AHRF

Prototype Viscount G-AHRF over Poole Harbour during an early test flight

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 turboprop Gloster Meteor fighter

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' engine that was to power the Viscount.

Vickers-Armstrongs VC1 Viking

Vickers-Armstrongs VC1 Viking

Vickers-Armstrongs was one of several aircraft manufacturer's who had been following the Brabazon reports.

By the end of World War II their VC1 Viking 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-Armstrongs Wellington bomber

Vickers-Armstrongs Wellington bomber

Brabazon Committee

In 1942, during World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to split responsibility for aircraft construction; the US would concentrate on transport aircraft while the UK would concentrate on their heavy bombers.

This would leave the UK with little experience in transport construction at the end of the war, a worrying development given the production infrastruction that would now be useless. Moreover the massive infrastructure in the US would allow them to produce civilian designs at low cost.

The Avro Lancaster was one of Britain's most successful World War II bombers

The Avro Lancaster was one of Britain's most successful World War II bombers

Starting in February 1943 a committee met under the leadership of Lord Brabazon of Tara in order to investigate the future needs of the British civilian airliner market. The Brabazon Committee studied a number of designs and technical considerations, and delivered a report calling for the construction of four general designs they had studied along with members of the airlines BOAC - British Overseas Airways Corporation and BEA - British European Airways Corporation.

Type I was a very large transatlantic airliner serving the high-volume routes like London-New York, seating its passengers in luxury for the 12-hour trip.

BEA Dakota

Douglas Dakota - DC-3 - C47

Type II was a feederliner intended to replace the DC-3 and de Havilland Dragon Rapide, although BEA suggested a larger and much more capable design. Type II was later split into two designs, IIA was a piston-powered aircraft, and the IIB was turboprop powered.

de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide

de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide

Type III called for a larger medium-range aircraft for various multi-hop routes serving the British Empire.

Type IV was the most advanced of them all, a jet-powered 100-seat design. Added at the personal urging of one of the committee members, Geoffrey de Havilland, the Type IV could, if the whole concept of a jet airliner could be made to work, be able to replace the Type III outright, and many of the duties of the other planes in shorter routes.

The committee published versions of the report several times between August 1943 and November 1945, each time further solidifying one of the types. In 1944, the Ministry of Supply started a tender process for contracts for all of these planes.

After a short selection process the Type I was given to the Bristol Aeroplane Company and was produced as the Brabazon.

Bristol Brabazon

Bristol Brabazon

Type IIA became the Airspeed Ambassador.

Airspeed Ambassador

Airspeed Ambassador

Type IIB became the Vickers Viscount and became the first gas turbine powered aircraft to carry fare paying passengers on a scheduled service anywhere in the world.

BEA - British European Airways Viscount c/n 7 G-AMOG

Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount

Type III also went to Bristol and became the Britannia.

Bristol Britannia

Bristol Britannia

Type IV went to de Havilland and would become the world's first jet airliner, the Comet.

de Havilland Comet

de Havilland Comet

In retrospect the majority of the Brabazon committee's suggestions were set up for failure. Invariably the designs were tailored to a single company, BOAC or BEA, and therefore had less appeal to other airlines.

In addition they apparently failed to consider the side-effects of greatly increasing route capacity as these planes would bring, and thought that their passengers would continue to be the rich, the only ones able to afford air travel at the time. This led to a number of unrealistic requirements, and doomed the Type I Brabazon design to carry considerably fewer passengers than it could, thereby making it too expensive to operate.

The only complete success of the Brabazon types was the Type IIB Viscount, which went on to be produced in the hundreds. The Type IIA Ambassador was produced in only limited numbers, as the Type IIB Viscount was a far better design.

Only one Type I Brabazon was built, which was broken up along with the uncompleted second prototype.

The Type III Britannia should have been a success, but a series of delays before entering service forced it to compete with newly-introduced jet designs from the US, with which it could simply not compare.

The Type IV Comet almost became an outstanding success, but three mysterious crashes grounded them all for long enough that they too were outdated by the time they were able to re-enter the market.

By the 1960s it was clear that the UK had lost the airliner market to the US, and later designs like the BAC 1-11, Hawker Siddeley Trident and Vickers-Armstrongs VC10 were unable to address this issue.

BAC 1-11
BAC 1-11
Hawker Siddeley Trident
Hawker Siddeley Trident
Vickers-Armstrongs VC10
Vickers-Armstrongs VC10


Another committee was formed to consider supersonic designs, STAC, and worked with Bristol to create the Bristol 223 design for a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner. However this was going to be so expensive to produce that the effort was later merged with similar efforts in France to create the Concorde.

Concorde

Concorde


The Turboprop World-Beater



Lord Brabazon of Tara

The Right Honourable John Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara (8 February 1884 - 17 May 1964) was born in England and became a British aviation pioneer.

He learned to fly in 1908 in France in a Voisin biplane. On October 30, 1909, flying a Short Brothers aircraft, he flew a circular mile and won a £1,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. On November 4, 1909 he made the first live cargo flight by airplane when he put a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane.

John Moore-Brabazon in a Voisin in 1909

John Moore-Brabazon in a Voisin in 1909

With Charles Rolls (co-founder of the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm) he would later make the first ascent in a spherical balloon made in England by the Short brothers.

On March 8, 1910 Moore-Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in Britain and was awarded Royal Aero Club certificate number 1.

During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps and was awarded the Military Cross. He was instrumental in the development of military aerial photography.

Moore-Brabazon later became a Conservative Member of Parliament for Chatham (1918-29) and Wallasey (1931-42) and served as a junior minister in the 1920s, then Minister of Transport and Minister of Aircraft Production in Winston Churchill's wartime government.

Moore-Brabazon was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Brabazon of Tara in 1942. In 1943 he chaired the Brabazon Committee which planned to develop the post-war British aircraft industry.

He was involved in the production of the Bristol Brabazon, a giant airliner that first flew on September 4, 1949. It was then and still is (as of 2004) the largest aeroplane built in Britain.

A keen golfer, Moore-Brabazon was captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the governing body of golf, from 1952-1953. In 1906, he married Hilda Mary Krabbé, with whom he had two sons. At the age of 70 he was still riding the Cresta Run.


Photo of BEA - British European Airways Viscount G-AOJC

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This website has been designed, built and is maintained by Geoff Blampied, Norwich, Norfolk, England.