Vickers Viscount - Operational History

Operational History

Regular passenger flights were launched by BEA in April 1953, this was the world's first scheduled turboprop airline service. BEA proceeded to become a large user of the Viscount, as well the rival Handley Page Dart Herald; by mid-1958 BEA's Viscount fleet had carried over 2.75 million passengers over 200,000 flight hours. Following BEA's launch of the type, multiple independent charter operators such as British Eagle were quick to adopt the Viscount into their fleets. During the 1960s, the Viscount had formed the backbone of domestic air travel in Scotland.

The early operational service of the Viscount quickly proved it to have significant performance advances over its rivals, and orders rapidly rose as a result; up to November 1952 only 42 aircraft had been ordered; by the end of 1953, early on in which it had been introduced, the order book had risen to 90, and 160 by the end of the following year. Vickers was able to quickly respond to the new orders as it had gambled on such orders emerging and early on the decision had been taken to commit to a high production rate at the company's own risk. In 1957, the Vickers production line was producing the Viscount at a rate of one aircraft every three days.

In October 1953, the Viscount 700 prototype G-AMAV achieved the fastest time (40 hours 41 minutes flying time) in the transport section of the 12,367 mi (19,903 km) air race from London to Christchurch, New Zealand. The aircraft averaged 320 mph (520 km/h) in the event, crossing the finishing line nine hours ahead of its closest rival, a Douglas DC-6A of KLM, with the latter winning on handicap. En route, equipped with extra fuel tanks, it flew 3,530 mi (5,680 km) nonstop from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands to Melbourne's Essendon Airport in 10 hours 16 minutes.

Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) received its first Viscount in 1954, and the aircraft quickly proved profitable, leading to additional orders. The Viscount proved to be an invaluable aircraft for TAA, aviation author John Gunn stating that "TAA had achieved dominance on Australia's trunk routes with its turboprop Viscounts". TAA would procure over a dozen Viscounts, and purchase later turboprop aircraft such as the Fokker F27 Friendship; it later transitioned to jet aircraft as passenger demand outgrew the capacity of the Viscounts. In order to compete with its rival TAA, another Australian airline, Ansett-ANA also procured its own small Viscount fleet; the Viscount allowed Ansett to set out a faster and superior service than the larger TAA for the first time.

The first North American airline to use turboprop aircraft was Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA), with a small fleet of Type 700 Viscounts. Initially, TCA was cautious of the Viscount due to the turboprop engine being a new technology, and there had been a preference for acquiring the piston-engined Convair CV-240 instead; praise of the Viscount from pilots and a promise from Vickers to make any design changes desired by TCA persuaded it to procure the Viscount instead. On 6 December 1954, the first Viscount was delivered to Canada in a large media event which including an improvised aerial display.

TCA became a prolific operator of the type, having placed multiple follow-up orders for addition Viscounts; by 1958 TCA had an operational fleet of 51 Viscounts. Aviation author Peter Pigott later wrote that: "For TCA and Vickers, the Viscount was a public relations coup. Passengers loved the quiet ride and panoramic windows. No other airline in North America flew turbo-prop airliners then, and no other British aircraft was bought by American airlines in such quantity." TCA would operate the Viscount for two decades until its successor company, Air Canada, ended Viscount services in 1974, the type was replaced by the McDonnell Douglas DC-9.

TCA's procurement of the Viscount generated considerable interest from airlines and industry figures across the United States, including American aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, Hughes purchased 15 Viscounts immediately after personally flying one. America's Capital Airlines became an important operator of the Type 700 Viscount, using it heavily throughout the eastern U.S. routes; it was reported in 1958 that Capital had accumulated over 350,000 flight hours on its Viscounts, more than any other operator. Continental Airlines and Northeast Airlines also became US Viscount operators.

The first airline in Latin America to operate the Viscount was Cubana de Aviación. Cubana's -755D Viscounts, delivered in 1956, were placed on the Havana-Miami and Varadero-Miami routes, and were successful at raising Cubana's market share on these routes. During the 1958 Cuban elections, a Cubana Viscount was hijacked by gunmen aligned with the 26th of July Movement, the aircraft crash-landed on the sea, reportedly killing 17 of the 20 occupants. When the U.S. government imposed its embargo on Cuba in 1962, Cubana decided to sell all of its Viscounts, they were replaced by Soviet-built turboprop aircraft.

South African Airways (SAA) was another major operator of the Viscount, by January 1959 it was operating on all of SAA's domestic routes. In 1961, SAA had seven Viscounts, and acquired a further aircraft from Cuba in the following year. In 1965, SAA began receiving Boeing 727s, which had been selected the previous year as a jet-powered replacement for the Viscount. SAA sold its last Viscount to British Midland in the 1970s.

Central African Airways (CAA) had been a traditional customer of Vickers, already operating a number of Vickers Vikings when it received its first Viscount on 25 April 1956. The introduction of the Viscount roughly coincided with the opening of a major airport at Salisbury, the Viscount became the mainstay of the route between Johanesburg in South Africa, Salisbury (now renamed Harare) in modern-day Zimbabwe, and London, England. CAA had enough Viscounts to entirely replace its Viking fleet and to occasionally lease them to other operators. More Viscounts were purchased by CAA right up until 1965, at which point CAA announced its intention to procure the British Aircraft Corporation's jet-powered BAC 1-11 successor as the long-term successor to the Viscount.

BEA, and its nationalised successor British Airways (BA), vigorously operated the Viscount on Britain's domestic routes. In the 1980s, British Airways began withdrawing its aging Viscount fleet; all BA Viscount operations in Scotland had ended in 1982. Former BA aircraft were often sold on to charter operators such as British Air Ferries. Some airlines chose to replace the Viscount with a newer turboprop aircraft, the Hawker Siddeley HS 748. On 18 April 1996, British World Airlines conducted the last Viscount passenger service in Britain, exactly 46 years after BEA's inaugural flight; on board the flight were Sir George Edwards and Sir Peter Masefield.

In late 1960, the People's Republic of China had begun negotiations with Vickers for as many as 40 Viscounts, however negotiations were protracted due to political tensions. At this point, China sought arrangements to purchase Viscounts second-hand from existing operators, and later achieved successive deals regarding the Viscount with Britain directly. The last batch of six aircraft built were for the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which were delivered during 1964; at the end of production a total of 445 Viscounts had been manufactured. Many Viscounts were refurbished and saw new service with African operators, sales of these second-hand aircraft continued into the 1990s.