Flew on these around Zimbabwe as a kid. Once my school organised a day flight. I remember the Viscount banking over the airport and all the windows being tinted red by the blazers the students were wearing.
My first ever flight in 1959 was a BEA Viscount from Belfast Nutt's Corner to Elmden, Birmingham. During the flight a quite corpulent passenger (presumably trying to stretch his legs) tipped his seat off its mountings while he ended up on the floor! My second visit to Birmingham (1964, from Belfast Aldergrove) was in a sister a/c - a Vanguard, BEA - bigger and more roomier than the Viscount, but on this occasion the plane ran out of runway and several yards onto the grass verge! I enjoyed every minute, but I still remember the high-pitched whine from the Viscount's engines. Good days. After that, all my flights were with Dan Air and eventually BA, but somehow the magic had gone, and I can't even recall what the aircraft were. Nowadays these regional hops are usually the Majestic, A319/320, but even Flybe have now gone west, sadly. Nice to see the Vickers again, thanks to Robin.
A brilliant design, flew one to Adana Turkey and from Ankara to Nicosia, early sixties, a pleasant flight and the sound of the DARTS was music to the ears.
I use to fly those wonderful little planes with BEA and VASP Brasil in the 1960's. Most confortable and quiet, than the cattle transports use nowadays......I miss them...
That start up and taxi run, what memories, brilliant so good to see and hear. I remember watching the Channel Airways Viscounts from the 'waving off terrace '
BAF flew us to Danmark with a Viscount in the nineties to visit the Bang & Olufsen plant. You could still visit the cockpit in those days. Oh yeah and the crew welcomed us in the 'British Aerospace Viscount' as not to scare us off by welcoming us in a fifties sounding plane-type.😄
My first airplane ride as a 3 year old was on a Viscount, early in the morning. The high pitch sound scared me. Gave my mom a difficult time for the 90 minute flight. The RR Darts had ear splitting whines
I flew out of Southend in 1972 on a British Air Ferries Carvair... sadly, I never flew on a Viscount, though New Zealand had a fine fleet of 800 series Viscounts in the late 50's and the 60's. Beautiful plane.
Great photography from a bygone era.The Non-flyers at 2.11 are L-R G-AOHL,G-LOND and G-AOYL.Parts from YL and latterly HL were donated to Brooklands for the restoration and ongoing preservation of G-APIM.
Having the pleasure of flying in one, a unique aircraft of its time, on the Channel Airways Golden Viscount Guernsey return in May 1971 . Known as a Prop Jet , most enjoyable . As always great aircraft give way to other upcoming ones. There, for me , is something special about prop aircraft. Always having lived in and around Southend Airport, and been fortunate to learn to fly there myself ,I will always have fond memories from the past .
That high pitch sound was a trademark of Rolls Royce engines. Although at times annoying, it sounded much more refined than the Douglas DC6's engines that, up on start up, it sounded like a truck with a misfiring engine! The Viscount was also loved for its extra large ports that gave a fantastic view to the traveler lucky enough to have a window seat.
Such a nice aircraft and sure wish they were still in passenger service today. Even the small jets complain about short runways. This would fit the bill. No it's not super fast but it sure beats walking and to a great point, driving. Lots of NO TALENT behind the steering wheels these days. Thanks for a great video.
The Viscount unfortunately had about the worst safety record of all passenger aircraft. 445 aircraft were built and 143 hulls were lost, about one third of all built. Half of those losses resulted in fatalities, the total being 1642. The airframe was subject to early fatigue and required much and frequent maintenance checks. In 1969 the Australian aviation safety authorities banned all Viscount 700 series from its airspace and introduced stringent safety checks for any 800 series flying in Australia. It is interesting to note that another Vickers aircraft, the Valiant bomber was withdrawn from service very early in its life cycle by the RAF, having also experienced fatigue problems. The book "Tragedy at Tuskar Rock " by Mike Reynolds contains much information on the poor performance of the Viscount, labeled in the second chapter as "The Serial Killer".
Eamon Ryan Hello Eamon. I'm a bit puzzled. You appear to focus on the safety record of the Viscount, but this aircraft had a long and successful career, and I think has to be seen in the context of the times. For example I began to look at its safety record and gave up because of so many accidents in training.....standards have improved enormously since the end of the Second World War , with the use of simulators because as some of these training practices were stopped because they were dangerous. The aircraft was quite a leap forward. Before and during the war, pressurised aircraft were a rarity....high level photo reconnaissance ....so that is one example of its success. Also post war civil operation could be very intensive , so inevitably fatigue problems were bound to come to light in a field only becoming to be better understood. All weather operation....routinely flying down to minima, in the midst of winter....this was not done prewar or even during the war....and the Viscount was a pretty hot ship for its day. A quick google in relation to the Tuskar Rock crash .....I haven't read the book....but a subsequent review investigation makes reference to missing maintenance documentation and possible fatigue/flutter failure. I recall for example in about 1969 at BAC Preston, there was an ongoing fatigue testing program on old piston provost wings.....and they had a new Provost production line up and running . What fatigue tests were performed on the Viscount I do not know, or where the Tuskar Rock A/C with some 18,000 hours , was in the grand scheme of things. So I suppose I'm saying perhaps you're being a bit harsh on the Viscount.
@@californiadreamin8423 You wouldn’t say that if you were me . I saw one of these Viscounts crash onto a factory roof back in 1965 ,close to Liverpool Speke Airport ,it made a loud bang & produced a fire ball killing the crew & those still in factory . Lucky the aircraft had only a small crew on board as it was being positioned from the Isle of Man & the factory had finished for the day . Some years later I flew on one myself ,but couldn’t get the image of the crash I saw at the age of 11 out of my head ,so landing safely was a bonus .
@@maskedavenger2578 I have no knowledge of this crash and what the accident report had to say. Unfortunately the events you describe do occur when an aircraft crashes, but flying is a lot safer than driving !! I flew the Viscount 700 and 800 series for about 2 years on the U.K. register and I thought it was brilliant and so did the passengers. It was a massive leap forward compared to say the DC3. Did you know Speke originally catered for sea planes ? Next time you’re passing look at the old control tower which has the look of a light house, and there is/was a slipway off one of the taxiways in the Mersey.
@@californiadreamin8423 I used to live about a mile from it from early 1963 to late 1965 ,I used to often go to the airport to watch the aircraft . The only jets that landed were British Eagle logo one elevens & small executive jets . They could use the old runway in front of the terminal , the new runway which is the one in front of the new John Lennon terminal now had just been built . It took aircraft ages to taxi behind Speke Hall to get to it . Most airliners visiting Speke in those days ,were Viscounts ,Bristol Britannias ,DC 3 Dakotas ,DC 4 ‘s & Fokker Friendships . The airlines were Cambrian ,British Eagle ,British United or Midland ,Aer Lingus & a couple of others now & then . I did hear it was used in WW 2 but never heard about the sea planes ,although the river is handy ,but has exposed sand banks at lower tides . We once as kids ran across the apron & sneaked into the large hanger to the left of the old terminal & got onboard a DC 3 ,I chose to be captain in left seat of course ,my cousin the Ist officer & his sister the stewardess we were only ten or 11 years old . Amazingly no body spotted us ,you couldn’t get away with doing that sort of thing now . The evening the viscount crashed I was nearby riding my bike ,we couldn’t believe it & was shocked . I moved away from Liverpool near Chester & Manchester airport was easier to get to . The last time I went to Liverpool airport it was to put my late mother on a ATP Manx Air flight to Ireland back in the then new terminal as was in the 1990’s .The old Art Deco terminal is now a hotel I think & the land on old runway & hangers used for businesses . Glad you enjoyed flying the old turbo props & lived to tell the tale 👍
@@maskedavenger2578 I flew the DC3 into Speke , old and new runways, on night Mail flights. Every Friday I used to leg it over the fence and go for fish n chips at a nearby Chinese. In the winter the gpo staff would make soup in the rest room above the sorting area, to keep everyone warm, and all the pilots were included. The baggage handlers took no prisoners when it came to football, and I’ve been a closet Liverpool (and Everton ) fan ever since. When I flew for a certain orange airline years later, the local cabin crew were great .
If you note that on the takeoff run at exactly 6:53 you see what looks like a bird that gets thrashed and sent flying out from one of the engines on the starboard side of the aircraft!!!
We used to visit Essendon Airport, Melbourne, to watch the aircraft coming and going. I always disliked the Viscounts and Friendships, only because of the 'screaming' RR Dart engines. By comparison, during the very same period, we has the Lockheed L188 Electra, with its Allison 501-D13 engines. The air-start was really impressive, and the opening of the throttles at commencement of take-off was an expression of magnificent power. [Aussie in BC]
Hi Robin. Yes I think I recall two Carvairs and one Bristol Freighter at Essendon. The 'graveyard' was usually populated by a few Viscounts and DC3's. Email: maths.Bruce@gmail.com Can we chat ?
The Vickers Viscount sounds much more like a turbofan than a turboprop. It sounds like a Boeing 707. The chafe cutter sound of the props is virtually inaudible.
Gary Orlando. Strangely, these early videos from 1992 were meant to feature Heralds, but they were only active at night; I only videoed the Viscounts so that my Sunday morning wouldn't be completely wasted! It was only in 1993 that I started to seriously record aircraft, and I did manage to capture some Herald action, mostly G-ATIG, and some fragments of the last BAF. There is enough material for a short video, probably a couple of projects after the Viscounts are finished, to give our hearing time to recover!
You can difinately tell that the Rolls Royce Dart engines are indeed jet engines with propellers attached. You've said that the distinctive whine of the Darts is produced by the centrifugal compressors. The sound of the Darts is much more domannt in this video than the sound of the props. On the turboprops that I've known and flown on, the sound of the props, the "Box Fan" sound in taxiing, and the bumblebee sound in takeoff and inflight is much more audible. When I've heard a DeHaviland Dash-8 taxiing in, I could clearly hear the amusing "chafe cutter" sound of the props over the whine of the jet engines. For that reason, many people who've flown on a Dash-8 don't realize that the turboprop engines of the Dash-8 are jet propeller engines. They think they're turbocharged piston driven propeller engines, especially inside the cabin inflight when the bass hum of the props, "Bumblebee" sound, is all you hear. The Viscount was the aircraft that was used in the 1979 movie, "The Rose" with Bette Midler. It was the Rose touring craft. There are scenes that show both a takeoff and an approach. In those scenes, the sound of the Darts is all you hear, and the sound of the props is inaudible. This leads me to believe that the centrifugal compressors of the Darts produce a much louder jet whine than those of the Pratt & Whitney engines of the Dash-8. The Viscount sounds much more like pure jet aircraft, than a turboprop. I've also heard that the Darts are single shaft. The Pratts, of the Dash-8 are double shafted free turbine. The props are especially fun to watch on a TV or computer screen. The 60 cycle flicker produces optical illusions of the props going slower or backwards, especially when the RPM's vary.
My first flight was the Cambrian Airways Vickers Viscount from Ringway to Isle Of Man.
J’ai adoré cet appareil.Même volé sur un vol de Air Inter enfant !
I remember that high pitched whine of the engines...as soon as I heard it I was transported back in time.
Flew on these around Zimbabwe as a kid. Once my school organised a day flight. I remember the Viscount banking over the airport and all the windows being tinted red by the blazers the students were wearing.
Even the Americans and the Germans liked the Viscount.
My first ever flight in 1959 was a BEA Viscount from Belfast Nutt's Corner to Elmden, Birmingham. During the flight a quite corpulent passenger (presumably trying to stretch his legs) tipped his seat off its mountings while he ended up on the floor!
My second visit to Birmingham (1964, from Belfast Aldergrove) was in a sister a/c - a Vanguard, BEA - bigger and more roomier than the Viscount, but on this occasion the plane ran out of runway and several yards onto the grass verge! I enjoyed every minute, but I still remember the high-pitched whine from the Viscount's engines. Good days. After that, all my flights were with Dan Air and eventually BA, but somehow the magic had gone, and I can't even recall what the aircraft were. Nowadays these regional hops are usually the Majestic, A319/320, but even Flybe have now gone west, sadly.
Nice to see the Vickers again, thanks to Robin.
A brilliant design, flew one to Adana Turkey and from Ankara to Nicosia, early sixties, a pleasant flight and the sound of the DARTS was music to the ears.
Very distinctive sound those engines...a beautiful aeroplane I've flown on many times...BEA...CAMBRIAN..MANX..great video 👍
I use to fly those wonderful little planes with BEA and VASP Brasil in the 1960's.
Most confortable and quiet, than the cattle transports use nowadays......I miss them...
That start up and taxi run, what memories, brilliant so good to see and hear. I remember watching the Channel Airways Viscounts from the 'waving off terrace '
Quality as always Robin. Love every one of your Southend classic uploads. Keep them coming!
Thanks for the great video, so great see and hear...happy days
BAF flew us to Danmark with a Viscount in the nineties to visit the Bang & Olufsen plant. You could still visit the cockpit in those days. Oh yeah and the crew welcomed us in the 'British Aerospace Viscount' as not to scare us off by welcoming us in a fifties sounding plane-type.😄
Thanks for posting this fantastic video as always Robin!
Another superb video Robin!. Thanks for your time making this wonderful video, always a pleasure to watch. Thank you!
Another superb video. thanks so much for sharing these wonderful sights and sounds
Ian M - flymajj those engine sings
WONDERFULL...o barulho do turbo helice VISCOOUNT.....
My first airplane ride as a 3 year old was on a Viscount, early in the morning. The high pitch sound scared me. Gave my mom a difficult time for the 90 minute flight. The RR Darts had ear splitting whines
David Vance A 3 year old me was scared of that high pitch sound. The ear splitter sound was when you were outside on the tarmac
I flew out of Southend in 1972 on a British Air Ferries Carvair... sadly, I never flew on a Viscount, though New Zealand had a fine fleet of 800 series Viscounts in the late 50's and the 60's. Beautiful plane.
How I wish we had real footage like this of the first DC-8s and 707s, with the RR Conways!
Great photography from a bygone era.The Non-flyers at 2.11 are L-R G-AOHL,G-LOND and G-AOYL.Parts from YL and latterly HL were donated to Brooklands for the restoration and ongoing preservation of G-APIM.
Thanks for the extra information.!
theres a vickers viscount in flight on you tube under widnes double deckers in the 1970s
Excellent as always sir.
Having the pleasure of flying in one, a unique aircraft of its time, on the Channel Airways Golden Viscount Guernsey return in May 1971 . Known as a Prop Jet , most enjoyable . As always great aircraft give way to other upcoming ones. There, for me , is something special about prop aircraft. Always having lived in and around Southend Airport, and been fortunate to learn to fly there myself ,I will always have fond memories from the past .
should get one flying again at airshows in the uk
Absolutely right, I really miss them so very much!
That high pitch sound was a trademark of Rolls Royce engines. Although at times annoying, it sounded much more refined than the Douglas DC6's engines that, up on start up, it sounded like a truck with a misfiring engine!
The Viscount was also loved for its extra large ports that gave a fantastic view to the traveler lucky enough to have a window seat.
Refined.... is a word to describe that excruciatingly loud screech... I guess...?
flew a lot on Air Rhodesia Viscounts
Those RR Darts spool up to idle fast
Rode these as TransCanada Airlines then AirCanada. Also the Vanguard.
My first flight was in a Viscount on TCA from Boston MA to Yarmouth NS.
Such a nice aircraft and sure wish they were still in passenger service today. Even the small jets complain about short runways. This would fit the bill. No it's not super fast but it sure beats walking and to a great point, driving. Lots of NO TALENT behind the steering wheels these days. Thanks for a great video.
The Viscount unfortunately had about the worst safety record of all passenger aircraft. 445 aircraft were built and 143 hulls were lost, about one third of all built. Half of those losses resulted in fatalities, the total being 1642. The airframe was subject to early fatigue and required much and frequent maintenance checks. In 1969 the Australian aviation safety authorities banned all Viscount 700 series from its airspace and introduced stringent safety checks for any 800 series flying in Australia. It is interesting to note that another Vickers aircraft, the Valiant bomber was withdrawn from service very early in its life cycle by the RAF, having also experienced fatigue problems. The book "Tragedy at Tuskar Rock " by Mike Reynolds contains much information on the poor performance of the Viscount, labeled in the second chapter as "The Serial Killer".
Eamon Ryan Hello Eamon. I'm a bit puzzled. You appear to focus on the safety record of the Viscount, but this aircraft had a long and successful career, and I think has to be seen in the context of the times. For example I began to look at its safety record and gave up because of so many accidents in training.....standards have improved enormously since the end of the Second World War , with the use of simulators because as some of these training practices were stopped because they were dangerous. The aircraft was quite a leap forward. Before and during the war, pressurised aircraft were a rarity....high level photo reconnaissance ....so that is one example of its success. Also post war civil operation could be very intensive , so inevitably fatigue problems were bound to come to light in a field only becoming to be better understood. All weather operation....routinely flying down to minima, in the midst of winter....this was not done prewar or even during the war....and the Viscount was a pretty hot ship for its day. A quick google in relation to the Tuskar Rock crash .....I haven't read the book....but a subsequent review investigation makes reference to missing maintenance documentation and possible fatigue/flutter failure. I recall for example in about 1969 at BAC Preston, there was an ongoing fatigue testing program on old piston provost wings.....and they had a new Provost production line up and running . What fatigue tests were performed on the Viscount I do not know, or where the Tuskar Rock A/C with some 18,000 hours , was in the grand scheme of things.
So I suppose I'm saying perhaps you're being a bit harsh on the Viscount.
@@californiadreamin8423 You wouldn’t say that if you were me . I saw one of these Viscounts crash onto a factory roof back in 1965 ,close to Liverpool Speke Airport ,it made a loud bang & produced a fire ball killing the crew & those still in factory . Lucky the aircraft had only a small crew on board as it was being positioned from the Isle of Man & the factory had finished for the day . Some years later I flew on one myself ,but couldn’t get the image of the crash I saw at the age of 11 out of my head ,so landing safely was a bonus .
@@maskedavenger2578 I have no knowledge of this crash and what the accident report had to say. Unfortunately the events you describe do occur when an aircraft crashes, but flying is a lot safer than driving !!
I flew the Viscount 700 and 800 series for about 2 years on the U.K. register and I thought it was brilliant and so did the passengers. It was a massive leap forward compared to say the DC3.
Did you know Speke originally catered for sea planes ? Next time you’re passing look at the old control tower which has the look of a light house, and there is/was a slipway off one of the taxiways in the Mersey.
@@californiadreamin8423 I used to live about a mile from it from early 1963 to late 1965 ,I used to often go to the airport to watch the aircraft . The only jets that landed were British Eagle logo one elevens & small executive jets . They could use the old runway in front of the terminal , the new runway which is the one in front of the new John Lennon terminal now had just been built . It took aircraft ages to taxi behind Speke Hall to get to it . Most airliners visiting Speke in those days ,were Viscounts ,Bristol Britannias ,DC 3 Dakotas ,DC 4 ‘s & Fokker Friendships . The airlines were Cambrian ,British Eagle ,British United or Midland ,Aer Lingus & a couple of others now & then . I did hear it was used in WW 2 but never heard about the sea planes ,although the river is handy ,but has exposed sand banks at lower tides . We once as kids ran across the apron & sneaked into the large hanger to the left of the old terminal & got onboard a DC 3 ,I chose to be captain in left seat of course ,my cousin the Ist officer & his sister the stewardess we were only ten or 11 years old . Amazingly no body spotted us ,you couldn’t get away with doing that sort of thing now . The evening the viscount crashed I was nearby riding my bike ,we couldn’t believe it & was shocked . I moved away from Liverpool near Chester & Manchester airport was easier to get to . The last time I went to Liverpool airport it was to put my late mother on a ATP Manx Air flight to Ireland back in the then new terminal as was in the 1990’s .The old Art Deco terminal is now a hotel I think & the land on old runway & hangers used for businesses . Glad you enjoyed flying the old turbo props & lived to tell the tale 👍
@@maskedavenger2578 I flew the DC3 into Speke , old and new runways, on night Mail flights. Every Friday I used to leg it over the fence and go for fish n chips at a nearby Chinese. In the winter the gpo staff would make soup in the rest room above the sorting area, to keep everyone warm, and all the pilots were included. The baggage handlers took no prisoners when it came to football, and I’ve been a closet Liverpool (and Everton ) fan ever since. When I flew for a certain orange airline years later, the local cabin crew were great .
If you note that on the takeoff run at exactly 6:53 you see what looks like a bird that gets thrashed and sent flying out from one of the engines on the starboard side of the aircraft!!!
I think that's a swift or something similar swooping low over the grass, nearer to the camera.
They must have been a loud airplane, even inside the cabin
We used to visit Essendon Airport, Melbourne, to watch the aircraft coming and going. I always disliked the Viscounts and Friendships, only because of the 'screaming' RR Dart engines. By comparison, during the very same period, we has the Lockheed L188 Electra, with its Allison 501-D13 engines. The air-start was really impressive, and the opening of the throttles at commencement of take-off was an expression of magnificent power. [Aussie in BC]
Did you ever see Carvairs at Essendon?
BTW, you can see L188's at Southend on my Electra Power videos.
Hi Robin. Yes I think I recall two Carvairs and one Bristol Freighter at Essendon. The 'graveyard' was usually populated by a few Viscounts and DC3's. Email: maths.Bruce@gmail.com Can we chat ?
@@bruceblake9942 email sent
The Vickers Viscount sounds much more like a turbofan than a turboprop. It sounds like a Boeing 707. The chafe cutter sound of the props is virtually inaudible.
Do you have any kind of footage of the Heralds? Also a takeoff run or flyby takeoff of the Herald?
Gary Orlando. Strangely, these early videos from 1992 were meant to feature Heralds, but they were only active at night; I only videoed the Viscounts so that my Sunday morning wouldn't be completely wasted! It was only in 1993 that I started to seriously record aircraft, and I did manage to capture some Herald action, mostly G-ATIG, and some fragments of the last BAF. There is enough material for a short video, probably a couple of projects after the Viscounts are finished, to give our hearing time to recover!
Very cool, I look forward to seeing them!! I like all of your videos!!
You can difinately tell that the Rolls Royce Dart engines are indeed jet engines with propellers attached. You've said that the distinctive whine of the Darts is produced by the centrifugal compressors. The sound of the Darts is much more domannt in this video than the sound of the props. On the turboprops that I've known and flown on, the sound of the props, the "Box Fan" sound in taxiing, and the bumblebee sound in takeoff and inflight is much more audible. When I've heard a DeHaviland Dash-8 taxiing in, I could clearly hear the amusing "chafe cutter" sound of the props over the whine of the jet engines. For that reason, many people who've flown on a Dash-8 don't realize that the turboprop engines of the Dash-8 are jet propeller engines. They think they're turbocharged piston driven propeller engines, especially inside the cabin inflight when the bass hum of the props, "Bumblebee" sound, is all you hear.
The Viscount was the aircraft that was used in the 1979 movie, "The Rose" with Bette Midler. It was the Rose touring craft. There are scenes that show both a takeoff and an approach. In those scenes, the sound of the Darts is all you hear, and the sound of the props is inaudible. This leads me to believe that the centrifugal compressors of the Darts produce a much louder jet whine than those of the Pratt & Whitney engines of the Dash-8. The Viscount sounds much more like pure jet aircraft, than a turboprop. I've also heard that the Darts are single shaft. The Pratts, of the Dash-8 are double shafted free turbine.
The props are especially fun to watch on a TV or computer screen. The 60 cycle flicker produces optical illusions of the props going slower or backwards, especially when the RPM's vary.
Jacky Claiborne The engines on Viscounts do sound like pure jets, except they produce a vibrating whine instead of the smooth whine of the pure jets.
Could anyone tell me, which Airline flew Viscounts from Southend to Jersey in 1960, please. Many thanks.
Channel Airways
@@robinpinnock2678 Thank you so much Robin.
Viscount-welcome to English language where you can pronounce words regardless of how they’re spelled! 😂
Like colonel (ker-nel)
In the 50’s I think the British made some of the best airplanes in the world. What happened?
N
What a horrible sounding engine compated to a t-56.