CRHnews - Vickers Viscount G-APEY Last passenger flights

The valiant role of the Vickers Viscount was celebrated by British World in 1996 with a number of VIP flights.
I managed to wangle a ticket to fly on one of the last commemorative flights to celebrate the official withdrawl of the Viscount from passenger service on April 1996.
Viscounts commenced commerical service with British European Airways on April 18, 1953,
Our flight took us from Heathrow to Stansted - we were to fly from Stansted to Heathrow and back, but as I recall something went pearshaped and we caught a chastily booked coach to Heathrow!!!
A photocall was arranged at Heathrow with a Concorde and a Bristol Freighter, but whoever could have guessed that the fastest passenger plane in the world would soon be joining the other two types on the scrapheap!
While at Heathrow a last gathering of the stalwarts who designed, built and flew in the Viscounts were addressed by Raymond 'Tommorrow's World' Baxter before boarding the G-APEY.
British World distinguished itself as an important regional airline, its record of scheduled and charter service covering infinity and beyond, earned it a dedicated following of corporate and conumer clients.
BWA's performance for regular clients such as the Parcel Force and the Air Travel Group drew commendations and repeat business.
It also supplied aircraft to larger carriers, such as Virgin, British Airways, and SABENA of Belgium, in times of peak demand.
Profits in 1995 were £1 million on a turnover of £35 million.
In November 1995, its Shell Oil North Sea contract was renewed in the face of fierce competition as the airline committed to the purchase of new ATR 172 turboprops to replace its aging Viscounts, most of which continued to serve as freight carriers.
The new turboprops consumed much less fuel per hour.
The company donated examples of its Viscount and Herald turboprops to aviation societies in England.
There were a series of flights arranged between Heathrow and Stansted to make the beginning of the end for this great workhorse of the skies.
The following month they were gutted for commercial use.
The Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world. It would go on to be one of the most successful of the first generation postwar transports, with 445 being built.
Design and development
The design resulted from the Brabazon Committee's Type II design, calling for a small sized, medium range pressurised aircraft to fly its less-travelled routes, carrying 24 passengers up to 1,750 mi (2,816 km) at 200 mph (320 km/h).[1] British European Airways (BEA) was involved in the design and asked that the aircraft carry 32 passengers instead, but remained otherwise similar.
During development, Vickers advocated the use of turboprop power, believing piston engines to be a dead end in aviation.
The Brabazon committee was not so convinced, but agreed to split the design into two types, the Type IIA using piston power, and the Type IIB using a turboprop. Vickers won the IIB contracts, while the IIA was the Airspeed Ambassador.
Prototype aircraft
The resulting Vickers Type 630 design was completed at Brooklands by Chief Designer Rex Pierson and his staff in 1945, a 32-seat airliner powered by four Rolls-Royce Dart engines providing a cruising speed of 275 mph (443 km/h). An order for two prototypes was placed in March 1946, and construction started almost immediately.
Originally to be named Viceroy, the name was changed to Viscount after the partition of India in 1947.
There was some work on replacing the Darts with the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba, but this was dropped by the time the prototypes were reaching completion.
The prototype Type 630 made its maiden flight on 16 July 1948, piloted by Joseph "Mutt" Summers, Vickers' Chief Test Pilot.
The design was considered too small and slow at 275 mph (443 km/h), making the per passenger operating costs too high for regular service, and BEA had placed an order for 20 piston engined Airspeed Ambassadors in 1947.
Early flight trials, however, showed the qualities of a turboprop, resulting in a February 1949 order from the Ministry of Supply for a prototype of a stretched version with more powerful engines, the Type 700.
The first prototype Type 630 was meanwhile awarded a restricted Certificate of Airworthiness on 15 September 1949,followed by a full Certificate on 27 July 1950, which allowed the aircraft to be placed into service with BEA on 29July to familiarize the pilots and ground crew with the new aircraft, flying services between London and Paris, and London and Edinburgh for a month

[@taketimeout2share]

Me and my best mate Dieter Sinnanin flew on what we believed to be the last flight of the Viscount from Southend in 1992(?).
Great flight, too short of course but what was so great with the Viscount was the huge round passenger windows.
I think we included a landing at Duxford to scoot around the Museum.
When we flew to Majorca during the sixties and early seventies it was in a Viscount, Vanguard,Caravelle or BAC 111.
Happy Days!

[@NorwaySpitfireHeroes]

Happy Landings indeed, seem a long way off to me

[@mrrolandlawrence]

Sir George Edwards, a name that should be more well known. It's quite a roll call of projects he worked on.

[@NorwaySpitfireHeroes]

Beginning as a design draughtsman in 1935, he was promoted in 1940 to Experimental Department Manager and in 1945 he became the Chief Designer of the Vickers-Armstrongs team that produced the Viking airliner, Valettamilitary transport, Varsity trainer, Viscount airliners and Valiant strategic bomber. He later became managing director of the company, supervising the development of the Vanguard, VC10 and (post-merger) BAC TSR-2strike bomber. He was knighted in 1957. He was President of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1957-58. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Edwards_(aviation)

[@alangale5666]

I was THERE, I rang in sick at my job to watch the event! an unforgettable experience!

[@NorwaySpitfireHeroes]

Well done, its worth pulling a sicky for such an historic flight

[@ianjohnson1920]

I think the last Viscount flight was in Africa in late 2009. Not a bad run - 1948 to 2009

[@NorwaySpitfireHeroes]

It was a bumpy flight and as usual I turned green - much prefer the big jets for a smoother flight

[@bobbypaluga4346]

British World crashed Viscount's G-OHOT Feb 24th, 1994, G-OPFE March 24th, 1997. Two others crashed or were written off in 2001, 2013. From 1957-1982 various airlines were crashing like crazy 9 in 1958, 8 in 1959, 5 in 1960, 5 in 1961, 5 in 1962.....Today, such a number would get the Viscount pulled off the line and grounded until causes could be found and corrected.

[@NorwaySpitfireHeroes]

Oh jolly good they sorted it out before I flew with my daughter, bless you