Welcome to our Viscount Museum

Nick Webb illustrations

Preserving the Memory of the Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount

Concorde

In the early 1950s the Viscount was just as pioneering as Concorde was 20 years later. Indeed, in many respects the Viscount was more successful than Concorde. Designed by Sir George Edwards, who was also involved with the design of Concorde, the Viscount was the world's first gas turbine powered aircraft to carry fare paying passengers on a scheduled service.

Travel back in time and enjoy yourself revisiting the long and colourful life of the Viscount. No two journeys will be the same and will be illustrated with photos from our archive dating from 1948 through to today.

Our museum is dedicated to preserve the memory of this ground breaking and highly successful British aircraft and has a membership in over 21 countries of people with an interest in the Viscount.

Please enjoy your visit through thousands of pages of photos and information, and don't forget to return regularly as new information is being added every week. Check the grey panel on the right hand side of every page for details.

MEA - Middle East Airlines / Air Liban

OD-ACT c/n 239
May 1965

Returned from Kuwait Airways lease.Taken at Beirut, Lebanon in May 1965 with Sudan Airways and MEA DH 106 Comets in the background.

Photo source - Will Blunt - GlobalAirImage Collection

BEA - British European Airways Corporation

G-AOJA c/n 150
June 1957

Delivered new to BEA - British European Airways named as ‘R M A Sir Samuel White Baker’. Taken at Heathrow, London, England in June 1957.

Photo source - Brian Stainer (Aviation Photo News)

Ministry of Supply

G-AHRF c/n 1
August 1948

Built for the Ministry of Supply as the type prototype. Taken being towed out of the flight test hangar at Wisley Surrey, England in August 1948 after the Vickers ' house ' livery had been applied.

Photo source - Flight International Photo Library

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Vickers-Armstrongs VC2 Viscount

1948 - 2012

Viscount prototype G-AHRF

It was during the 1940s that Vickers-Armstrongs and Rolls-Royce proved that the gas-turbine engine was the power plant of the future by developing the world class Viscount passenger aircraft and Dart engine.

'Commercial flying', an airline passenger of the first half of the 20th Century once observed, 'is 90% boredom and 10% fright'.

This is the story of an aircraft that was instrumental in altering this opinion. It is the story of a remarkable aircraft that so shattered the accepted notions of travel comfort and airline economics that its standards became accepted as a yardstick by which other forms of transport were measured. It is the story of the first turbo-prop airliner in the world, and the first transport type ever to break America's monopoly of the commercial aircraft market.

TCA - Trans-Canada Air Lines

Notable firsts:-

29 July 1950 - C/N 1 G-AHRF operated by BEA - British European Airways Corporation became the first gas turbine powered aircraft to carry fare paying passengers on a scheduled service anywhere in the world when it departed Northolt, Middlesex, England as flight number BE392X2 to Le Bourget, Paris, France.

13-17 February 1953 – C/N 3 G-AMAV owned by the Ministry of Supply became the first gas turbine powered passenger aircraft to cross the North Atlantic.

1 April 1955 – C/N 42 CF-TGK of TCA – Trans-Canada Air Lines operated the first gas turbine powered scheduled revenue service in North America as flght number 265 from Montreal, Province of Quebec to Winnipeg, Manitoba via Toronto, Ontario and Port Arthur, Ontario (known as Thunder Bay since January 1970 when it amalgamented with Fort William), Canada.

4 April 1955 – C/N 42 CF-TGK of TCA – Trans-Canada Air Lines operated the first international gas turbine powered scheduled revenue service in North America from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Idlewild, New York, USA (since 1963 known as JFK - John F Kennedy airport).

BEA - British European
Airways

The Viscount was born of a post World War II belief that the gas-turbine in one form or another was the power plant of the future. A statement of this belief has now become unexceptional and unchallenged, but in 1945 it was none of these things.

There were at the time more people willing to prove conclusively that gas turbines would never be economically suited to passenger operations, than there were converts to rebut them.

In those pioneer days the arguments on both sides were still based on theory, plus on the side of those who supported the gas turbine, a considerable degree of faith.

Virgin Atlantic Airways

When the Viscount was in full production, Vickers-Armstrongs won orders from some 60 customers worldwide, amounting to a return of £177 million for the 439 aircraft sold.

Later the number of operators greatly increased as examples came onto the second-hand market, usually to play a large part in improving the carriers' financial position.

Pegasus Aviation

The Viscount saw service throughout the world on both passenger and freight services and although the majority had been withdrawn by the start of the 21st century, a few soldiered on.

Numerous examples of this classic Vickers-Armstrongs design have been preserved for posterity. While providing a fitting tribute to the magnificent aircraft and its creators, the atmosphere and character of a living specimen is naturally missing.

The Turboprop World-Beater Viscount

By Gerry Sweet

Gerry Sweet chronicles the history and development of the UK's most successful propeller-driven commercial airliner.