G-BBDK
Last Updated 27 January 2006
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FEATURED AIRCRAFT - VICKERS VISCOUNT
This page is very rarely updated ! It sits quietly for years in glorious isolation, so don't expect anything exciting to happen. It was intended to be a showcase for selections of my aviation photographs taken over the last 35 years. I have taken lots and lots, but most of them are rubbish. Anyway, enjoy the pics, and feel free to use them for anything you like. Mail me if you like 'em !
For the time being I'm featuring the classic Vickers Viscount in a selection of the many pictures I have taken of the type since the 1970s. Most were shot while I worked at East Midlands Airport, near Derby, UK from 1976 to 1985. EMA became a real honey pot for Viscounts during that period because there were three organisations there that were involved with them; British Midland Airways had a large and busy fleet, mostly of 800-series aircraft, Alidair (later to become Inter City) also flew several - most of them being the older 700-series aircraft - as well as buying many others for refurbishment and resale, and finally Field Aircraft Services had a large maintenance unit at EMA which overhauled a wide assortment of Viscounts for their various customers.
Thanks to many of you for additional information about these aircraft, especially Chris Wagstaff.
The quality of the images is not going to win any prizes, although most of the problem is not with the original image but the way I've reproduced them on the page.. Some time I'll get round to improving them all.
I'm afraid I'm a bit of a fanatic. I worked in British independent airlines all my life until 1991 when I started my own air charter brokerage business, and believe that the best days were when planes had propellers, smelt bad and dripped oil.
I used go to air displays a lot, but have slowed down recently. There were some golden years for displays around the 1970s / 80s at places like Mildenhall, IAT, Leicester and so on, but the show circuit seems to have lost that spark somehow.
Specialist areas - anything except pre-1920, and modern homebuilds, microlights, balloons.
All photographs on this page were taken by me, unless otherwise credited. I have a large collection dating back to around 1960, and I hope you find them interesting. Feel free to download them, use them as wallpaper, toilet paper, whatever.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have to earn a living, so I run a cargo charter brokerage named SKYLINE AVIATION and organise flights to here and there. Why not visit the website ?
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VICKERS VISCOUNT
G-BBDK
April 1977 at East Midlands Airport. Air Bridge Carriers was a cargo airline formed by the Hunting Group of companies to find some way of making money out of operating aircraft that Fields had been unable to sell (or that had been dumped on them). Their original Armstrong Whitworth Argosies had been acquired by Fields from Sagittair as a result of unpaid bills. Viscount 808C G-BBDK (c/n 291) was another unwanted addition to the fleet.
Built in 1958 as EI-AJK ("St.Cillian") for Aer Lingus, it was the last of a batch of three most unusual Viscounts, in that they were fitted with proper cargo doors. By the end of 1969 all three had been withdrawn, and two were broken up in Dublin in 1972. Only EI-AJK survived, as it had been leased to Switzerland as HB-ILR. This lease did not go particularly smoothly, and the aircraft had to be repossessed by Aer Lingus in 1972. It then drifted about on the market for a while until turning up as the property of Field Aircraft Services by the end of 1973. As usual, their inability to sell it led it to become G-BBDK wearing Air Bridge Carriers titles by the summer of 1974.
Apart from an early lease to Dan Air, ABC never really found a niche for this aircraft, despite its 8 tonne payload and zippy performance, and it spent most of the late 1970s at Bournemouth working the Channel Island routes, that were somewhat 'becalmed' at the time. Eventually Fields found a buyer, and they couldn't have come up with a worse one. Southern International Air Transport at Stansted had been running an ex Fairey Surveys DC-3 for some years, but decided to expand into the Viscount business, which virtually killed them overnight, leaving unpaid bills all over the place.
In 1983 British Air Ferries took pity on the old ship (by then in open storage at Stansted) and tarted it up with a new name "Viscount Linley". Kitted out as a serious freighter aircraft (particularly aimed at North Sea oil work) G-BBDK was marketed as "The Freightmaster", and began to do quite well. Mike Kay, marketing guru for B.A.F. at the time decided (in typical fashion) that the slogan should be "Stuff It in the Freightmaster !". Adverts and stickers demanding "Stuff It !" began to appear all over the industry, and a publicity photo taken at Southend, looking up at what appeared to be smiling BAF traffic girls and hostesses standing on steps up to the aircraft turned out to be not quite what it seemed in two respects; firstly the girls (it was reported) had been collected from Southend seafront and, secondly, enlargement of the pictures in the art room at Air Cargo News revealed that the ladies were wearing no knickers. Typical Mike Kay.
By the early 1990s, British Air Ferries had changed its name to British World Airlines, and G-BBDK was wearing "Parcel Force" colours, operating night-time express flights for the postal services, and in 1994 it was re-registered as G-OPFE. It then had an accidental wheels-up landing at Belfast (Aldergrove) airport on 2nd April 1996, and had been broken up and removed by the end of that year.
4X-AVE
Whenever Field Aircraft Services bought an aircraft from Israel, the first thing they did was to paint out its Israeli registration ! Here, Viscount 831 4X-AVE has hardly shut off its engines at East Midlands Airport in March 1979 when the paint brushes were out and black splodges appeared over any identifying features relating to its service with Arkia Airlines, Israel (except the Arkia livery !). A Viscount 831 (c/n 403) it had been G-APNE with British United Airways from 1960 to 1967 (including a short lease to Royal Jordanian as JY-ADA in 1966), then being acquired by British Midland Airways in 1967, and Arkia Airlines in 1972. Returning to the UK in March 1979 (as seen above) it was subsequently sold to the USA and was stored at Tucson, Arizona from 1982. Then in 1992 it was bought by the Pima Community College Aviation School, later winding up at the K.Tech Aviation scrapyard, Tucson. It was still there in December 1998, but was not seen in June 1999 and I assumed it had been broken up.
However Nicolai Musante from Copenhagen very kindly sent me a photograph he took in April 2003 of the nose section in the DMI Aviation scrapyard, near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. Thanks Nicolai.
4X-AVI
Field Aircraft Services were not quite so quick off the mark with their paintbrushes on 14 March 1980 when 4X-AVI arrived back at East Midlands Airport after a lease to Arkia, Israel. A Viscount 814 (c/n 341) this aircraft was built as D-ANIP for Lufthansa in 1959, passing to British Midland Airways in 1973 as G-BAPE. Intra Airways bought it in 1977, changing their company name to Jersey European Airways two years later. However, a requirement to lease G-BAPE to Arkia late in 1979 gave them no time to repaint the aircraft. In this picture, although being owned by Jersey European, it wears Intra livery and Arkia titles !
It immediately reverted to being G-BAPE once more and, in March 1980, it was sold to Express Air Services, the forerunner of Bournemouth-based Airbus operator, Channel Express. They immediately leased it to British Midland for six months. After that it was sold again, this time to a disastrous Stansted-based company named Southern International, who were bust almost before they had started operating the aircraft. In 1981 it was sold to Royal American Airways in the USA as N145RA, later serving with "Viscount Unlimited Inc.". The aircraft then went into store at Tucson, Arizona.
In March 2001 I received a message from Mrs.Terry Wolfson of GAB Robins, Fort Lauderdale, who gave me a lot of recent information. She said the aircraft is still at Tucson and was involved in a mishap in November 2000 when ground personnel were attempting to move it and the nose gear collapsed. It seemed to have been sitting for quite some time prior to the incident. One engine is missing and, although they had not seen the interior, they believe it may have been gutted. She kindly sent me four photos, one of which showed the name "Rod Stewart" on the port side of the nose. Terry didn't know when Rod Stewart had used it, but she believed the aircraft had not flown since 1989. Here is one of the pictures she sent, and my thanks go to her and GAB Robins for the photos and the info.
N145RA
9Q-CPY
During the late 1970s, Alidair at East Midlands Airport acquired a large number of ex-Canadian Viscounts and refurbished them either for their own use or for resale. This Viscount 757 had originally been CF-TIF with Trans Canada Airlines (c/n 386) but, by October 1978 when this picture was taken at EMA, had become 9Q-CPY being readied for delivery to Zaire Aero Service, Kinshasa. It lasted barely 3 years there, and was withdrawn from use at Ndolo (the domestic airport at Kinshasa) in 1981. However its ownership was later transferred to Zairean Airlines, and they held it in store at Kinshasa (apparently last noted there in January 1996), but its current status is unknown.
G-ARGR
East Midlands Airport, May 1978. Viscount 708 G-ARGR was a very early example (c/n 14) and had been built for Air France in 1953 as F-BGNN. In 1960 it became G-ARGR and was to serve with such glorious names as Maitland Drewery (now there's a name from the past !), BKS Air Transport, Silver City Airways, and British United Airways. In 1966 it went back to France as F-BOEB for Air Inter, and then reverted to G-ARGR for Alidair in 1975. Subsequently it passed to Inter City, British Air Ferries and Janus Airways in 1984. Then it was sold to Zaire as 9Q-CAN for the strangely-named "MMM Aero Services", and was scrapped in Kinshasa in 1987.
G-AZNA
Viscount 813 G-AZNA (c/n 350) of British Midland Airways at East Midlands Airport in October 1978. It had been with South African Airways as ZS-CDX "Wildebees" from 1958 to 1972. British Midland later leased this aircraft several times to Manx Airlines between 1982 and 1988. It was then acquired by British Air Ferries associate "Baltic Airlines" who used it in 1989 on the short-lived Gambia Air Shuttle, and in 1990 with the (also short-lived) exotic carrier "Hot Air". After that it was withdrawn from use at Southend, and its last journey occurred in September 1992 when it was transported by road from Southend to Belgium to become the "Kokorico" nightclub at Zomergen.
HC-ATV
This was the last-but-one Viscount to be constructed (c/n 457). Built as a Viscount 828 (G-ASBO) in 1962 it was sold to All Nippon Airways in 1962 as JA 8208. Bought by SAN Ecuador in 1970 and re-registered HC-ATV it visited a rather misty East Midlands Airport in November 1978 prior to moving to Coventry for a "Check 4". It crashed in October 1982.
YI-ACM
Iraqi Airways YI-ACM came to East Midlands Airport when purchased (along with YI-ACK) by Alidair in April 1978. Built in 1955 (c/n 69) as a Viscount 735, Alidair re-registered it as G-BFYZ, and it was soon working for associate company Guernsey Airlines as "Sarnia" (the Latin name for Guernsey). The following year (25 October 1979) it was damaged beyond repair when it swung off the runway on landing at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland. Its sister ship YI-ACK lasted a little longer, but it eventually wound up as the fire training aircraft at East Midlands Airport in 1982, its last traces disappearing in 1988.
As a postscript to this item, Graham Roberts very kindly sent me the photograph above. He says;
"On 25 October 1979 I was returning to Flotta, Orkney after my leave, on the Guernsey Airways Viscount G-BFYZ owned by Alidair (on charter to Occidental), which crashed on landing at Kirkwall Airport. On board were 47 passengers and 4 crew, including the Tracy Jones Band, the Flotta camp entertainment for the Thursday night. Fortunately there were no injuries but the Viscount was a "write off"!
"A day or so later we were all invited to give our account of the incident to an air accident investigator (from Farnborough). I was asked along with three others to stay behind for more in-depth descriptions. At the end of the meeting we were promised a copy of the report which I never received. I've obviously not forgotten the incident although it was a long time ago, but I would be interested to see the report. "
"The photo was taken minutes after the event by a fellow Flotta worker (no name). I, in actual fact, jumped from the front of the aicraft carrying his small child."
XT575
January 1982 at East Midlands Airport, and XT575, a Viscount 837 belonging to the Royal Radar Establishment at Boscombe Down, visits Field Aircraft Services on a new maintenance contract. One of the last few Viscounts to be built, it was delivered to Austrian Airlines in 1960 as OE-LAG "Franz Schubert" (c/n 438). Bought in 1964 by the British government for radar research work, it finally retired after a long career as a flying laboratory in 1991. Auctioned by Phillips in July 1993 it was bought for its engines only at £145,000, the forward fuselage going to the Brooklands Museum, Surrey, and the remainder being scrapped by Hanningford Metals, Stock, Essex.
G-BDRC
This was the last 700-series Viscount in service in the UK. G-BDRC (c/n 52) was a Viscount 724 built in 1955 as CF-TGO for Trans Canada Airlines. It then became F-BMCG with Air Inter from 1964 to 1975, G-BDRC with Alidair (as seen here wearing the titles of their subsidiary Guernsey Airlines, with whom it was named "Sarnia II" - see YI-ACM above), and was sold to Janus Airways in 1984. In 1986 it was withdrawn from use and dumped at the Manston (Kent) Fire School, finally being cleared for scrap in August 1993.
G-AOHT
In the winter of 1982/83 British Air Ferries leased a couple of Viscount 802's to Polar Airways, based at Teesside. Polar's short career (they ceased trading in April 1983) involved operating the Pandair / "Aerolink" parcels service from East Midlands Airport to Maastricht, and little else. G-AOHT (c/n 168), seen here at East Midlands still wearing the basic BAF livery, was built in 1957 and operated for BEA as "Ralph Fitch", British Air Ferries as "Carol" from 1981, Polar in 1983, BAF again, Euroair in 1984, and BAF again until its Certificate of Airworthiness expired in May 1986. It languished at Southend until 1991 when it was sold for scrap to Hanningford Metals at Stock, Essex. By 1994 only the cockpit survived, and the last remnants were removed from the yard during a major clearout in May 1995.
G-BBVH
Seen in evening sunshine outside the Field Aircraft Services hangar at East Midlands Airport in late 1983 is GB Airways Viscount 807 G-BBVH. Built in 1957 (c/n 281) it was originally ZK-BRD with the New Zealand National Airways Corporation as "City of Wellington", but was bought by British European Airways in 1974 for lease to Gibraltar Airways (who were later to use the title "GB Airways"). In May 1981 Gibraltar Airways bought it outright, but it was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at Tangier in November 1988.
G-AOYN
29 July 1950 saw the departure of the first commercial 'jet' flight in the world. That flight was a demonstration for British European Airways by Vickers of their new turboprop Viscount airliner. It operated from Northolt (BEA's normal London operating base at that time) to Le Bourget airport, Paris, with some BEA staff and a handful of surprised (and fortunate) fare-paying passengers.
Forty years later to the day (29 July 1990) British Air Ferries decided to recreate the flight as a 40th anniversary tribute to the Viscount. Permission was granted to use RAF Northolt (not easy at that time - and on a Sunday too !), and also to park outside the old terminal building at Le Bourget, now disused. Viscount 806 G-AOYN was chosen for the flight, and I was delighted to be one of the passengers, along with two of the original crew members from that first flight. It was a glorious day, and the picture above shows passengers disembarking at le Bourget, with the historic old control tower and terminal as a backdrop.
G-AOYN (c/n 263) was delivered to British European Airways in 1958 as "Sir Isaac Newton", and served with them until 1971 when it was bought by the Welsh associate company Cambrian Airways. In 1980 it was withdrawn from service, and British Air Ferries bought it the following year, initially naming it "Diane", and later "Viscount Rotterdam". In 1993 British Air Ferries was renamed British World Airways, and G-AOYN changed its name yet again to "Spirit of Brooklands", acquiring the striking 'Parcel Force' livery and a new registration, G-OPAS. It was finally broken up for spares at Southend in March 1997.
G-APEY
Finally, an old bird but still working hard for its living very late in life. This is G-APEY, a British Air Ferries Viscount 806, operating daily connections from Gatwick to Maastricht for Virgin Atlantic Airways in March 1989. Built in 1958 (c/n 382) this aircraft served with BEA (as "William Murdoch"), BKS (from 1968) - and their renamed successor Northeast Airlines (I flew on it while working for them !) - and British Air Ferries from 1981. BAF used it for a variety of foreign oil contracts, and then brought it home for North Sea oil work in 1982, naming it "Viscount Shetland". It was to become the last Viscount to operate passenger services in the UK, with a final tour at the end of 1997 carrying some 1100 enthusiasts in 18 flights. It was sold to South Africa in January 1998, marking the final end to nearly half a century of Viscount passenger operations in the UK. I'll miss 'em !
P.S. Chris Wagstaff told me that this aircraft was still in service with Interflight in 2000 as 3C-PBH, operating from Lanseria, South Africa. By February 2001 it was owned by Peter B.Henderson, and still operating out of Lanseria for a company called Planes R U !
And that's it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.
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