T
P
TBy June 1945 Vickers was able to
present a formal proposal describing its
new VC2 Viceroy project to the Ministry of
Aircraft Production and the newly formed
Ministry of Civil Aviation. The aircraft was
designed to cruise above the clouds at
20,000ft, carry 28 people a maximum range
of 1,200nm (2,222km).
Before a nal contract was placed with
Vickers, certain amendments were added
to the initial proposal; these being that
the capacity should be increased from
the initial gure of 24 passengers to 32.
To accommodate this, the fuselage was
lengthened from 65ft 5in to 74ft 6in (20
to 22.5m), and the wing extended to 89ft
(2,713m). It was on these new gures that
the Ministry of Supply issued a contract to
Vickers-Armstrong on March 16, 1946 for
the production of two prototypes powered by
Armstrong Siddeley Mamba engines, with
a third prototype being nanced privately
by Vickers. The new aircraft was given
the designation V.609 Viceroy but this was
changed to Viscount in 1947.
Later it was decided to complete the two
Ministry of Supply prototypes, G-AHRF andG-AHRG, with the new Rolls-Royce Dart
engine and rename the project the V.630.
However, Vickers re-engined its development
aircraft (G-AJZW) with the new Napier Naiad
powerplant and renamed this variant the
V.640. This third trials aircraft project was
halted during the production process.
The rst prototype was assembled at the
company’s Foxwarren facility in Surrey. It
was then transferred by road to the nearby
Wisley air eld for its rst ight. Registered
as G-AHRF, the Rolls-Royce Dart 502
powerplants were tted instead of the
Mamba engines because development work
had progressed faster on the Dart.
The rst ight took place on July 16,
1948 and was piloted by Joe ‘Mutt’ Summers
and Gabe ‘Jock’ Bryce; it lasted for around
20 minutes and the only fault on the initial
air test turned out to be a defective fuel
ow gauge. The new aircraft was a great
success for the company and the team led
by George Edwards.
The second prototype Viscount,
G-AHRG, was given the military serial
number VX217 and was completed as a
type V.663 experimental aircraft, powered bytwo Rolls-Royce Tay turbojets. It was rst
own from Wisley on March 15, 1950 and
was used for more than a decade on high-
altitude military test ights unrelated to civil
airline operations.
The Vickers design team was working
hard to produce a Viscount design that
would appeal to airlines and hopefully sell
in sufficient numbers to make a pro t for the
company. The type V.655 had already been
on the drawing board for about a year and
provided the blueprint upon which the new
project was founded.
Viscount G-AHRF was allocated the
military serial VX211 during trials which
culminated in the issue of a restricted
Certi cate of Airworthiness on August 19,- This led to a month-long pre-
http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 43Prototype G-AHRF making
its Farnborough debut in- Key Collection
Vickers test pilot Jock Bryce (left), Eastern Air
Lines executive Eddie Rickenbacker (right)
and designer George Edwards (rear) during
an early proving ight in September 1952.
Key Collection