Vickers Viscount

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Vickers Viscount
British Air Ferries Vickers Viscount
Type: Airliner
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd.

First flight:

July 16, 1948

Commissioning:

1953

Production time:

until 1964

Number of pieces:

445

British Airways Vickers Viscount , 1975

The Vickers Viscount was a commercial aircraft from the British Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd. which was built from 1948 to 1964. Designed for up to 75 passengers, the aircraft was powered by four Rolls-Royce Dart PTL engines and reached a maximum cruising speed of 584 km / h.

As the first commercial aircraft with turboprop propulsion, the Viscount ushered in a new era in aviation. The first flight of the medium- and short-haul aircraft took place on July 16, 1948, the commissioning took place in April 1953. By the end of series production in 1964 Vickers had delivered 443 machines to more than 50 owners worldwide, a large part of them after Canada and the USA. The aircraft was particularly popular with passengers because of its large windows and its quiet and largely vibration-free drive. None of these aircraft are in service today.

History and versions

Prehistory and Development

The idea of ​​building a commercial aircraft with a propeller turbine air jet engine (PTL) matured at the end of 1944 during discussions between the Brabazon Committee and the Vickers designers, who were already working on a civilian derivative of the Wellington bomber as the VC.1 Viking. In March 1945 Vickers submitted various projects for such a commercial aircraft with a pressurized cabin for 24 to 27 passengers and a take-off weight of 15,900 kg under the designation VC.2 on the drawing board. The specifications IIB (8/46) drawn up by the Brabazon Committee in May of the same year provided for a medium- and short-haul aircraft with 24 seats and a payload of 3400 that was intended for the European routes of British European Airways (BEA) and powered by four propeller turbines kg should be able to carry over a distance of at least 1600 km. At the end of the year, Vickers had chosen the Rolls-Royce Dart engine as a possible drive and, in collaboration with the BEA, developed the project to such an extent that the British Ministry of Procurement was able to place a government order with the company on March 9, 1946 to build two prototypes. One of these machines was to be powered by Armstrong Siddeley Mamba or Rolls-Royce Dart engines.

Construction and first flight

Initially, the new aircraft type was named "Viceroy", but the name was given up after India's declaration of independence in favor of the name "Viscount 609". In December 1946, the construction of the first aircraft began, which at the request of the BEA had to be enlarged to carry 32 passengers and was given the type designation Viscount 630. Four Dart 504 (R.Da.1) engines served as propulsion. The first flight (V.630, G-AHRF) took place on July 16, 1948 in Wisley , but the flight performance did not meet expectations. Potential customers - first and foremost the BEA airline  - were initially reserved about the new aircraft type, which slowed down work on the second prototype. This machine was completed as a flying test bench for the Rolls-Royce-Tay jet engine.

Type 700

1980 postage stamp

After the more powerful Dart 505 (D.Ra.3) engine became available, Vickers decided to build an enlarged version for up to 53 passengers. The prototype (G-AMAV) of this version, known as the Viscount 700, was completed on April 19, 1950 and finally carried out its maiden flight on August 28, 1950.

First use in regular service

Vickers Viscount Type 701 of Cambrian Airways , Bristol Airport, England, 1963
Aer Lingus Viscount 808 in Manchester , 1963
Austrian Airlines Viscount 837, 1960

In order to cope with the intense summer traffic, the prototype V.630 was used by the BEA on a trial basis for one month from July 29, 1950 on the routes London – Edinburgh and London – Paris in the passenger liner service. The positive experience gained during this time led to an order for 20 V.700 machines at the end of August of the same year, which was increased to 26 units shortly before the end of the year. The aircraft, designed according to the BEA standard for 47 passengers, had a maximum take-off weight of 24,000 kg and were given the type designation Viscount 701. The first production machine (G-ALWE) took off on its maiden flight on August 20, 1952 and was given the name Discovery on August 3 Handed over to the BEA in January 1953. The new aircraft type received its type certification on April 17, 1953 and the next day the Viscount flew its first scheduled service between London and Nicosia (Cyprus).

export

The first foreign customers for Viscount were Air France , Aer Lingus and Trans Australia Airlines . The breakthrough on the North American market meant the orders from Trans-Canada Air Lines (V.724; MTOW 27,216 kg) for 51 aircraft in November 1952 and from Capital Airlines (V.745, MTOW 29,256 kg) for 40 aircraft in June 1954 as well 20 more in December 1954.

The Viscount received the US air traffic license on November 7, 1955 and on November 14, 1955 the first V.745 was delivered to Capital Airlines. As a result, various American airlines opted for the Viscount, at that time the only available passenger aircraft with propeller turbine drive. The propeller turbine drive had proven to be more economical on the American short-haul routes, the loss of time compared to the jets was only slight on the short-haul routes. Although the changing interior equipment required the use of numerous type numbers, there were basically only three versions of the V.700 series: Viscount 700 with Dart 505 or 506; Viscount 700D with Dart 510 (R.Da.6) and larger fuel volume and finally the Viscount 770D, the counterpart of the V.700D intended for the American market. Some Viscount of these series are also equipped with external tanks arranged under the wings. Apart from the prototypes, a total of 287 Viscount series 700 were produced, some of which were used as business jets for a long time. By contrast, there have been no such aircraft in service with airlines since the mid-1980s.

Type 800

Cockpit of a Vickers Viscount 806

The largest versions of the Viscount were the 800 and 810 series. They were 1.20 meters longer than the 700 and offered space for up to 75 passengers.

Compared to the 800, the Viscount 810 was equipped with even more powerful engines, which enabled it to achieve better performance data, including a maximum cruising speed that was a good 60 km / h higher. However, structural reinforcements also had to be made for this.

Further changes to the fuselage and engines were planned; however, this pattern was further developed into the Vickers Vanguard .

use

Use in German-speaking countries

The Lufthansa sat from 1959 to 1971 a total of eleven Viscount 814. Four of them were temporarily operated by Condor Flugdienst . Austrian Airlines operated six brand new Viscount 837s, two 745Ds acquired second-hand from Capital Airlines and four from Fred. Olsen's Flyselskap rented 779D. Air Commerz was using two Viscount 808s, four former Lufthansa aircraft were acquired by Nora Air Services and SATA in Geneva operated two Viscount 803s.

Military use

AustraliaAustralia Australia
BrazilBrazil Brazil
China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China
IndiaIndia India
OmanOman Oman
PakistanPakistan Pakistan
South Africa 1928South African Union South African Union
TurkeyTurkey Turkey
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Incidents

From the first flight in 1948 to the end of operations in 2009, the 445 Vickers Viscounts built suffered 144 total losses, of which 137 were losses in flight operations. In 68 of them, 1,742 people were killed.

Technical specifications

Parameter Vickers Viscount 800 data
crew 3-4
Passengers Max. 75
length 26.11 m
span 28.55 m
height 8.15 m
Wing area 89.42 m²
Wing extension 9.1
Empty mass 18,700 kg
Max. Takeoff mass 32,840 kg
Max. Fuel capacity 8842 l
Max. Cruising speed 522 km / h (at 7000 m)
Service ceiling 7620 m
Range depending on the payload up to 3040 km
Engines four Rolls Royce Dart 510 engines with 1768 hp (1324 kW) each

(Four-blade propeller with a diameter of 3.05 m)

Preserved copies

The flight exhibition L. + P. Junior in Hermeskeil owns the former Viscount 814 of Lufthansa D-ANAM . The Technik-Museum Sinsheim owns an earlier Viscount 708 from Air Inter ( F-BGNU ).

A Viscount 814 that has been converted into a restaurant without motors and propellers is located in Hanover-Ricklingen on Bückeburger Allee / Mercedesstraße. This Viscount used to have the D-ANAB registration number at Lufthansa and served as a restaurant on the Ith on the B240 at the entrance to the Ithwiesen special airfield from 1971 to 2002 .

Another Vickers Viscount 814 ( D-ANAF ) had stood at Frankfurt am Main Airport at Lufthansa Technik as a training object for training since 1972 . This training aircraft was dismantled in Frankfurt on September 18, 2012 and brought to Speyer. There it was reassembled by Lufthansa trainees in the Technikmuseum Speyer and has been on display since spring 2013.

The walk-in nose section of a Vickers Viscount 806 is on display in the Bournemouth Aviation Museum in Christchurch (England).

In Zomergem, Belgium, a Viscount 813 with the registration number G-AZNA jacked up is exhibited as an eye-catcher on the premises of a night club .

literature

  • CF Andrews, EB Morgan: Vickers Aircraft since 1908. Second Edition, Putnam, London 1988, ISBN 0-85177-815-1 .
  • Len Cacutt (Ed.): Vickers Viscount. In: Great Aircraft of the World. Marshall Cavendish, London 1989, ISBN 1-85435-250-4 .
  • Gerry Manning: Airliners of the 1960s. Zenith Imprint, Minneapolis 2000, ISBN 0-7603-0944-2 .
  • HA Taylor: The Viscount ... Vickers Peer Without a Peer. In: Air Enthusiast. No. August 25-November 1984, ISSN  0143-5450 , pp. 1-17.

Web links

Commons : Vickers Viscount  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrews / Morgan, pp. 537-552
  2. ↑ Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1959-1960. London 1959
  3. ^ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp airline-fleets international. Zurich Airport 1967 to 1980.
  4. ↑ Accident statistics Vickers Viscount , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 10, 2018.