How The Vickers Viscount Became The Most Popular Aircraft of Its Time

Though many have since forgotten its name, the Vickers Viscount was the most popular British commercial airliner of the postwar era and the first turboprop airliner ever built.

Produced between 1948 and 1963, Vickers built 445 Viscounts in total, which were used by airlines all over the world and became one of the first modern airliners to be used on all six inhabited continents!

Pre-Vickers Viscount

When Britain entered WWII in September 1939, a decision was made to focus the country’s entire aircraft industry on building military aircraft for the war effort. Much like Britain’s male population, the country’s airliners were conscripted into military service, often being converted into bombers.

Three years later, in 1942, Winston Churchill traveled to Moscow for the Moscow Conference, flying in the bomb bay of a modified Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Not designed for passenger transport, Churchill nearly froze to death.

Hoping to occupy his mind with something other than the thought of him freezing, Churchill realized that there was a major absence of modern British airliners. Every airliner he could name was either American or German, especially those used by British airlines.

Upon his return to London, Churchill spoke with Sir Stafford Cripps, the Minister for Aircraft Production, a political rival of his, and one of his predecessors, Lord Brabazon of Tara, an aviation pioneer-turned-politician and political ally of Churchill’s.

Despite their political differences, both men told Churchill the same thing: Britain has no airliners.

Dismayed, Churchill ordered Lord Brabazon to establish a committee and reach out to his friends in the British aviation industry about producing a series of five airliners for different roles.

The second of the five airliners, creatively known as Type II, was looking for a small, medium-range, pressurized airliner capable of transporting 24 people on less-traveled routes up to 1,750 mi (2,816 km), at a speed of 200 mph (320 km/h).

Pre-Development

Reaching out to his close friend Rex Pierson, the chief aircraft designer at manufacturing giant Vickers-Armstrongs, the Brabazon Committee (as it was known) informed him of the British government’s need for five new types of airliners.

Interested, Rex told the committee about the advances in turboprop engine technology, and how it was now powerful enough to be used on an airliner of this size, whilst having a lower cost per seat than its piston counterparts.

Though many members of the committee were interested in pursuing a turboprop airliner, the committee as a whole were reluctant to change the required specs of the Type II, as they were not fully convinced it was a financially viable option.

Refusing to fully give up on what might be a great aircraft, the committee chose instead to split the specification into two types: the first, known as Type IIA, would be piston-powered and the second, known as Type IIB, would be turboprop-powered.

Interestingly, both specifications would lead to the development of new airliners. The Type IIA became known as the Airspeed Ambassador, and the Type IIB became the Vickers Viscount!

Development

Now with the government interested in their project – and with it written down on paper – Rex Pierson and the design team at Vickers got to work designing a turboprop-powered airliner to the Type IIB’s specifications.

Originally known as the Vickers Viceroy (after Louis Mountbatten, the Queen’s second cousin once removed and the British Viceroy of India) Vickers’ first design was based on its Viking design, then in development for Air Ministry Specification 17/44.

Realizing this design was untenable, the Vickers design team played around with several designs, most notably an unpressurized double-bubble fuselage design that never materialized due to the committee’s insistence the airliner be pressurized.

Eventually, Vickers settled on its Type 630 design and submitted it to the Brabazon Committee, who were initially impressed with the aircraft.

However, input from British European Airlines (BEA), then one of Britain’s two major airlines, convinced the government to ask Vickers to increase the Type 630’s capacity from 24 passengers to 32, as this made the aircraft’s economics even better.

Finalizing the Type 630’s design, the first prototype rolled off the assembly lines in 1948 and was equipped with four Rolls-Royce Dart Mk 502 engines, whilst a second, modified prototype known as the Type 663, rolled off the assembly line in 1949.

After India’s independence in 1947, Vickers were forced to change the name of the aircraft from Viceroy to Viscount, once again naming it in honor of Lord Mountbatten, who also held the title of Viscount Mountbatten of Burma.

Completing its first test flight on July 16 1948, piloted by Vickers chief test pilot, Joseph “Mutt” Summers, the flight was successful and garnered both itself and Vickers much praise.

Despite its success, however, the company, made several modifications to the Viscount’s design, namely stretching the fuselage to accommodate 43 passengers and using updated Rolls-Royce Mk 506 Dart engines.

Operational History

Known as the Type 700, it became the first Vickers Viscount variant to enter mass-production and entered service with British European Airlines (BEA) on April 18 1953, replacing the airline’s Douglas DC-3 fleet.

From there, it went on to have a commercial service life that lasted well into the 21st century!

Early Airline Service

Though BEA may have been the Viscount’s launch customer, they were by no means the only airline to operate the aircraft.

Primarily used on longer-haul domestic routes within the UK, BEA’s success with the Viscount saw many of Britain’s early charter airlines, most notably British Eagle, acquire the Viscount for use as a cargo aircraft in the off-season and an airliner in the on-season.

Becoming a staple of the fleets of most British airlines, pilots began to write ferociously about how good the Viscount was in aviation magazines and to their pilot buddies in other parts of the British Empire, telling them the future was with turboprops.

Reading these articles and letters, many airlines began to take note and the first foreign order came in from Trans Australia Airways (TAA) in 1954. Seeing their rival TAA acquire the Viscount, Ansett-ANA acquired a small fleet of Viscounts in 1956.

Outside of Australia, airlines in Canada also placed their own orders, starting with Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) in 1954. Similarly flying them on domestic routes, as well as short-haul flights into the US, TCA had a fleet of 51 Viscounts by 1958.

Seeing its popularity in Canada, American airlines such as Capital Airlines, acquired the Viscount in 1955, followed quickly by Continental Airlines and Northeast Airlines in 1958, where the Viscount was used for medium-haul interstate routes.

Beyond the Western World, Vickers also managed to sell the Viscount to Central Africa Airways (CAA) in Africa and Cubana de Aviación in Latin America, with those airlines becoming the first operators of the Viscount in their respective continents.

Signing the deal with CAA in 1956, Vickers later sold the Viscount to South African Airlines (SAA) in 1961 too.

A Second Life

The late 1950’s and early 1960’s saw the introduction of several new regional jet airliners such as the BAC One-Eleven and Sud Aviation Caravelle.

By the late 1960’s, most of the Viscount’s operators had fleets of jet-powered aircraft which were superior to and cheaper than the turboprop aircraft, such as the Vickers Viscount, then used on medium-haul routes.

As such, by 1970, most operators in the West had either begun to, or had completely phased the Viscount out of mainline operations, either pawning them off to one of their subsidiaries or selling them wholesale.

Selling them at a vastly reduced price, the Viscount became a favorite of startup airlines in the West, such as Aloha Airlines, as well as the emerging low-cost airline industry too, who acquired the Viscount simply because it was cheap.

Operating them on many of the same routes their previous owners operated them on, the only real difference for the Viscounts was the livery/liveries they were painted in.

More often than not, however, the Viscounts were sold to airlines in the so-called “Third World”, primarily to airlines in Africa, where they mostly operated short-range international flights, such as Harare to Johannesburg for Air Zimbabwe.

The last airworthy Vickers Viscount is believed to be 9Q-COD, originally built for BEA. Passing through the hands of several different owners, 9Q-COD eventually wound up in the hand of Global Airways in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to them, 9Q-COD performed its final flight on January 1 2009 before being withdrawn from service and stored at Luano Airport, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it has continued to have several different owners.

Military

Proving a popular airliner, the Vickers Viscount soon gained the attention of several military branches who began acquiring it to fulfill several different roles.

Seeing its size, the first military operators, such as the Indian, Pakistani, Brazilian and South African Air Forces, acquired Viscounts with VIP interiors straight from the factory, using them to transport the countries’ military and political elites.

Acquiring the Viscount in the mid-1950’s, the Royal Australian Air Force was the next to follow suit, acquiring two VIP-configured Type 839s in 1964 and the Sultan of Oman Air Force and Turkish Air Force acquiring their Viscounts from 1971 onwards.

Aside from serving as a VIP transport, the Empire Test Pilots’ School, based at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England, operated one Type 744 and another Type 745 as “flying classrooms” for test pilots and flight engineers from 1962 until 1971 and 1972 respectively.

Though not strictly military operators, the Canadian Department of Transport operated two Viscounts – one Type 737 delivered in March 1955 and one Type 797 in 1957 – as VIP transports.

Likewise, the Government of Iran acquired one Type 838 in may 1961 for use as a ministerial transport aircraft and operated it for several decades.

Interestingly, the Royal Radar Establishment, a now defunct research center based in Malvern, Worcestershire, England with close ties to the British military, operated one Type 837 and another Type 838 as radar testbeds from 1964 and 1965 onwards respectively.

VIP Transport

Though the world’s militaries were by far the most prolific VIP operators of the Vickers Viscount, they were by no means the only one. In a world before conventional business jets, airliners like the Viscount served as corporate jets.

And it wasn’t just second-rate corporations who operated the Viscount either: it was some of the largest companies in the world at the time!

The first corporate operator to acquire a VIP-configured Viscount was the United States Steel Corporation, better known as US Steel, who took possession of three Type 764s in 1956, mere months after the Indian Air Force had acquired their first Viscount.

Not long after, the Standard Oil Company of California (later known as Chevron), acquired their sole VIP-configured Type 765. Delivered on February 11 1957, Standard Oil operated it until November 5 1975, when it was sold on.

Interestingly, the Standard Oil Viscount later wound up in the service of several smaller airlines before eventually being repossessed by Bank of America in June 1986, who briefly operated it along with their corporate jets before selling it in May 1991.

Two years after Standard Oil acquired their Viscount, in August 1959, US-based chemical giant Union Carbide took possession of their sole Type 839 and operated it until selling it to the Royal Australian Air Force in 1964.

Often serving as the company’s main transport, the Viscount was in charge with transporting the company’s highest-ranking executives, primarily the C-Suite executives (such as the CEO, COO, CFO etc.) and their entourages whilst on company business.

Testbed

Though the first Vickers Viscount prototype, given the designation of Type 630, was the one used by Vickers to perform all the test flights and ultimately gain certification for the Viscount, the second prototype had a far more interesting life…

Known as the Type 663, the aircraft was exactly the same as the Type 630, with one major exception: it had two engines instead of four. And they weren’t turboprop engines at all – they were jets!

Used as a testbed for the Rolls-Royce RB.44 Tay engine design, the Type 663 was painted in RAF marking and given the serial number VX217 in March 1950.

Flying for the first time on March 15 that year, it marked the first successful flight of the Tay engine (which was later built under license in France for the Dassault Mystère IV and in the US for the Lockheed Starfire, Grumman F9F and North American YF-93).

Intriguingly, it also marked only the second flight of a jet-powered commercial aircraft in Britain after the 1949 flight of the de Havilland DH106 Comet.

Later returned to Vickers, the company used it in the development of powered controls for the jet-powered Vickers Valiant nuclear strike bomber, later a part of the “V bombers” next to the Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor.

Years later, it was acquired by aircraft manufacturer Bolton Paul Limited, who used it in the development of electronic flight control systems for its VTOL aircraft of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Museum

As the first turboprop airliner ever used in regularly scheduled commercial service, and as one of the most popular airliners of the 1950’s (not to mention a British aviation icon!) the Viscount has become a favorite of aviation museums the world over!

Currently, there are 26 Vickers Viscounts on display at aviation museums in 14 countries. Though most are the entire aircraft, several have survived as cockpits and fuselages. Sadly, none are airworthy.

Among those Viscounts currently on display is the first-ever produced Type 701A (registration: G-ALWF) which is painted in BEA colors and sits on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, in Cambridge, England.

Another famous Vickers Viscount, this time the first Viscount delivered to Trans Canada Airlines in 1955 (and the first aircraft to operate international commercial flights in North America) currently on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

Currently on display at the Beijing Air & Space Museum, is the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s sole Type 734, which was acquired from Pakistan in 1970 before being transferred to CAAC Airlines in 1983 and placed on display many years later.

Other Viscounts are currently on display at aviation museums in France, Germany, Scotland, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Specifications

Specifications	Vickers Viscount 810
Length	26.11 m (85 ft 8 in )
Wingspan	28.55 m (93 ft 8 in)
Height	8.15 m (26 ft 9 in)
Crew	2 pilots + 2 stewards/flight attendants
Passengers	57 – 75 (depending on configuration)
Cruise Speed	536 km/h (333 mph; 289 kn)
Range	2,220 km (1,380 mi; 1,200 nmi)
Service Ceiling	25,000 ft (7,600 m)
MTOW	67,500 lb (30,617 kg)

Why Was The Vickers Viscount so Popular?

Continually produced for 15 years between 1948 and 1963 (with the final deliveries happening in 1964), Vickers produced a grand total of 445 production Vickers Viscounts and three prototypes, flying on every inhabited continent!

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Viscount was the most produced airliner in Britain at the time, and one of the few successful postwar British aircraft internationally speaking.

Yet, prior to this, Vickers’ commercial aircraft hadn’t been that successful, especially not outside of Britain. So this begs the question, why was it so popular?

For the most part, the Viscount’s popularity was due to its exclusivity factor. As the first turboprop-powered airliner, Vickers essentially had a monopoly on the market, meaning that any airline who wanted a turboprop airliner had to buy the Viscount from Vickers.

Beyond its exclusivity factor, the fact it was a turboprop also meant it had better specs than its piston-powered competitors.

Not only was it faster than the piston-powered airliners it competed against, it also had a longer range, which opened up many more routes for prospective customers, often enticing airlines to pick the Viscount over say, the Convair CV 240.

Though the first of its kind, Vickers didn’t wildly increase the Viscount’s price in the hopes of making a quick buck. Instead, they actually made the Viscount cheaper than its piston-powered competitors!

With a price tag of around £191,000 (roughly $497,000 at the time) the Viscount was much cheaper than the nearly $600,000 (roughly £231,000) price tag of the Convair CV 540.

So beyond being technically superior to its competitors, it was also cheaper to buy as well as to operate, which made much more profitable per flight to operate, and thus, more appealing to airlines who are always looking for a profitable airliner.

Alone, these factors would’ve been enough to sell the Viscount to most major airlines. Together, these factors made it a no-brainer for any airline executive worth his salt!

How Safe Was The Vickers Viscount?

Although it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever fly on the Viscount, it did spend the better part of six decades transporting millions of passengers on hundreds of thousands of flights. As such, we should at least look at the Viscount’s safety record…

Luckily, at least by the standards of the time, the Viscount was actually considered quite safe. Its Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines were more reliable than the piston engines that were all the rage for commercial airliners at the time.

Of the 445 production aircraft and three prototypes built by Vickers, a total of 179 were involved in an aviation-related incident of some sort. Of these 179 incidents, 144 were hull-loss incidents, with the aircraft being written off in a staggering 131 of these cases!

All in all, only 73 of these hull-loss incidents resulted in fatalities, with the Viscount having a combined 1528 fatalities. Interestingly, had you been flying on a Vickers Viscount that crashed, your chances of survival stand at a mere 10.7%, quite low even for the time.

Looking at the accident reports, the overwhelming majority of the fatal crashes were caused by things like poor weather and pilot error, both of which affect all types of aircraft, regardless of whether it’s a tiny Cessna or giant airliner.

Having been a popular military transport aircraft, flown primarily by military and political higherups, as well as a popular aircraft with African airlines (often flying over territory in states of war/civil war) the Viscount was shot down several times, mostly unintentionally.

More disturbingly, however, there are several unexplained crashes involving the Viscount.

Due to a lack of evidence, investigators can’t say for certain, but they believe of these unexplained crashes were the result of aircraft failure, often involving an impairment in the controllability of the aircraft’s pitching (it’s ability to go up or down).

Sadly, whilst considered incredibly safe by the standards of the 1940’s and 1950’s, by modern standards, it’s considered incredibly unsafe, as 40.22% of all Viscounts ever made ended up crashing!

If an aircraft with a similar safety record was released today, it would never get approval! If by some miracle it did, the entire fleet would be grounded, and it would never fly again…

Legacy

Though it first flew well over 70 years ago, and hasn’t flown a regularly scheduled commercial flight for the better part of a decade, the Vickers Viscount still left a rather large legacy, one that can still be traced today!

Vickers

During the war, Vickers’ Supermarine subsidiary had become internationally famous thanks to their Spitfire design, which became famous during the war for its role in several major campaigns, most famously the Battle of Britain.

Yet, Supermarine’s parent company, Vickers-Armstrongs, whilst a manufacturing giant in pretty much every way and known to almost everyone in Britain, didn’t receive any press coverage.

At least internationally, Vickers was not only not that well-known, but the notion that it was a giant was a complete joke!

However, after the introduction (and later success) of the Vickers Viscount, Vickers-Armstrongs became famous from São Paulo, to New York, to London, to Johannesburg, to Tel Aviv, to Mumbai, to Canberra, and everything in between!

In turn, this allowed Vickers to sell its other commercial aircraft, namely the Viking, and later the Vanguard and VC10 to non-English speaking operators, not to mention its military vehicles and missiles.

Future Aircraft

One of the most popular aircraft of the mid-1950’s, Vickers used a lot of the money it got from the Viscount to develop a stretched variant of the Viscount capable of transporting 130 people – something pretty much unheard of in the late 1950’s.

First flown on January 20 1959, it entered service with British European Airways (the precursor to today’s British Airways) where it became known as the Vickers Vanguard.

Despite being hailed as the one true successor to the Viscount, and being in service from 1960 until 1996, the Vanguard never really lived up to the hype, with only 44 being produced by Vickers.

Beyond being a test for Vickers, the Viscount was also a test for the commercial applications of turboprop engines. Though there had proven more popular than pistons in military service, many were skeptical about how popular they’d be with airlines.

Whilst some manufacturers, like Vickers, powered ahead to produce turboprop-powered airliners, many hung back. However, the success of the Viscount proved to those who held back that commercial turboprops were here to stay… for now.

What do you think about the Vickers Viscount? Have you ever flown on it? Tell me in the comments!

Featured image courtesy of Peter Miller via Flickr.