Vickers-Armstrongs

25 April 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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Letter from HRH Prince Philip

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by David Carter

Discover the history of the Viscount with film, video, contemporary reports from the pages of Flight Magazine, our newsletters, and aircraft operational records and photos from our database.

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Featured pages

Our website contains over 20,000 pages of photos and information that can all be accessed from the menu at the top of every page. Here are a few to get you started.

In the Beginning

The Turboprop World-Beater

Sir George Edwards

The Rolls-Royce Dart

c/n 1 G-AHRF V.630
The Prototype Viscount

c/n 2 VX217 V.663
The Tay powered Viscount

c/n 3 G-AMAV V.700
The V.700 series prototype

c/n 4 G-ALWE V.701
The first BEA Viscount

c/n 5 G-ALWF V.701
The oldest surviving Viscount

c/n 8 F-BGNK V.708
The first Air France Viscount

c/n 30 EI-AFV V.707
The first Aer Lingus Viscount

c/n 40 CF-TGI V.724
The first TCA Viscount

c/n 44 VH-TVA V.720
The first TAA Viscount

c/n 67 YI-ACK V.735
The first Iraqi Airways Viscount

c/n 70 CF-GXK V.737
The first Canadian DoT Viscount

c/n 71 VP-TBK V.702
The first BOAC Associated
Companies Viscount

c/n 74 G-ANRR V.732
The first Hunting-Clan Viscount

c/n 77 LN-FOF V.736
The first Fred Olsen Viscount

c/n 79 IU-683 V.723
The first Indian Air Force Viscount

c/n 88 N7402 V.744
The first Capital Airlines Viscount

c/n 97 VH-BAT V.747
The first Butler Air
Transport Viscount

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Some parts of the restortation have resorted to guesswork

Update by Denys Jones

The pile of pressurisation and heating ducting that had been stripped out of ZK-BRF. Armed with the parts book and space on the hangar floor we laid it all out to figure out what went where and what was missing.

This has resulted in some educated guesswork that isn't made any easier by the fact that some of the items have just vanished!

We found that as NAC (New Zealand National Airways Corporation) had modified systems they had updated the tabular pages of the parts book but not the illustrations. This has resulted in some educated guesswork that isn't made any easier by the fact that some of the items have just vanished!

NAC did some repainting with several different shades of green

We then proceeded to work in the bowels of ZK-BRF and the photo above shows the view looking aft from the rear underbelly access hatch. Of note is the variety of colours present, as it appears NAC did some repainting with several different shades of green.

The under-floor area was exceptionally dirty with the dirt combining with a greasy material that has set quite hard. We're not sure what the greasy material is, but as it is widespread we are wondering if it is some sort of preservative applied by NAC. To remove this grease/dirt mixture we are having to spray it with a commercial degreaser, wash it down with scotchbrite pads and a warm water solution containing a domestic floor cleaner, then sponge it out with clean cold water.

The z-section stringers were very dirty and contained amongst other material nuts, bolts, bits of lock wire.

The z-section stringers were very dirty and contained amongst other material nuts, bolts, and bits of locking wire. The photo above shows un-cleaned bays to the left of clean ones. Due to the lack of space only one person can work here at a time, so a good afternoon's work would be to clean the two dirty bays shown. Another intriguing item is the brown material along some (but not all) rivet lines. It is a semi-pliable material like a silicone of some sort and we assume it is where NAC have done some re-riveting.

One very interesting item found tucked up in a corner of the under-floor was half of the front page from the Rotorua Daily Post dated 3 July 1963. The headline story is about the crash of the NAC Douglas DC-3 ZK-AYZ in the Kaimai Range with the loss of all 23 on board. We will naturally be preserving this little gem.

In the photo above you can see the refitted intercooler with two pyramidical fittings and the first stages of the lengthwise ducts running away from it. The intercooler is mounted over the central fixture shown in the top photo.

Lastly this photo shows the trim cable tensioner featured in our last report, and other restored items like the pulley brackets, that have been re-attached to the tailspar in the aft fuselage bay.

For more information on this project visit the Ferrymead web site and watch the news pages here at the Vickers Viscount Network.

Ferrymead Heritage Park, Ferrymead Park Drive, Heathcote, Christchurch, New Zealand. Phone +64 3 3841970

Photo of BEA - British European Airways Viscount G-AOJC

The Vickers Viscount Network is always interested to hear from anyone who has information or photographs to help complete the story of the Viscount. If you can help please contact us at
Information@VickersViscount.net.

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