Forgotten First — the Vickers Viscount
July 29, marks a seminal day for aviation enthusiasts. The world’s first scheduled commercial service operated by a turbine-powered airliner, took place on this day 70 years ago.
The aircraft which made that historic flight from London to Paris in 1950 was a Vickers Viscount G-AHRF, on loan to British European Airways (BEA; then Britain’s state-owned regional airline) from the manufacturer.
But, as all aviation geeks know, the Viscount was a four-engined turboprop aircraft, not a true, or ‘pure’, ‘jet’ as most large aircraft are these days. Therein lies a story.
Piston power reaches its limits
The piston engine (like the one in your legacy car unless you drive a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf) was a 19th century invention. By the 1940s it had reached its natural design limits. Piston-driven aircraft like the Lockheed Constellation were the dominant long-haul machines of their time. With its large pressurized cabin and four huge 18-cylinder Wright Cyclone engines, the ‘Connie’ was a marvel, the type having originated with the Model 749. But the aircraft had persistent engine issues — the limits of the technology had been reached. It was time to switch to a turbine engine.
Enter the turbine engine
The basics of a gas-turbine engine, with a compressor that makes the air denser, a combustion chamber where it is heated, and exhaust that produces thrust, was well understood by the 1930s. The Second World War provided the impetus to refine the technology, and the Germans became the first to introduce a jet combat aircraft — the legendary Messerschmit Me 262 twin-engine fighter/bomber.
Mating the simplicity of a turbine, with a large propeller through a reduction gearbox is essentially what a turboprop engine does. The fundamental architecture of the aircraft and airfoil (wing) remained the same, regardless of whether the engine powering the propeller it is a piston or turbine.
The conventional route
Some fundamental choices were made in deciding to pursue the turboprop or jet (turbofan) as the engine of choice. The prevalent thinking in the 1940s was that a ‘pure jet’ (with no propeller) was too noisy and difficult to fly in commercial applications. While the military focused on jet-engine types, the civilian world looked to develop turboprop aircraft for airline duties. The lower speeds at which a propeller was most efficient dictated a straight (as opposed to swept-back) wing, and more conventional appearance. The flight characteristics were also similar to piston-engined aircraft of the day, which was an additional plus.
Lockheed was one of the major manufacturers that decided to stay with the turboprop, building the Model 188 Electra as a successor to the dominant Constellation 1049 series (and its ultimate derivative, the 1649 Starliner). In the long term this proved to be a poor decision, and ultimately led to Lockheed exiting the airliner business, though the C-130 Hercules, a direct descendant of the Electra, continues to dominate a niche market on the military transport scene.
British technological prowess
In the 1940s Britain still had a technologically advanced industrial base. The Gloster Meteor, another twin-engined jet fighter, was the Allies’ only turbine-powered combat aircraft of WW2. Post-war the British government continued to pour resources into the field, determined to maintain a cutting-edge aviation sector.
As part of this, the Air Ministry laid out specifications for a medium-range, pressurized airliner intended for European routes. The Vickers Viscount, with its Rolls-Royce Dart engines, was the culmination of this contest.
Test flights proved the viability of the design, with its smooth and quiet turboprop engines being a significant improvement on the large, noisy, vibration-prone piston power-plants. The Air Ministry approved a specification for a larger model of the prototype Viscount to go into production. Subsequently, one of the early examples was provided with a Certificate of Airworthiness that allowed BEA crews to familiarize themselves with the aircraft.
Eventually, that first scheduled commercial flight by a turbine-powered aircraft took place on June 29, 1950, from London-Northolt Airport to Paris-Le Bourget with 14 paying passengers on board.
The Viscount proved to be a reliable and efficient aircraft, and a sales success for Vickers. A total of 445 aircraft were built and flown by airlines and even a few air forces all over the world, including the USA, Europe and Australia, plus many Asian, African and South American airlines as well as Communist China. Colombo, also, was served by daily Viscount flights operated by Indian Airlines to and from Ratmalana. The Viscount would continue in commercial service for almost 60 years, with the last example flying in the Congo until 2009.
A blind alley
As we know today, the turboprop airliner was flying into a ‘box canyon’ or a blind alley. The lure of the speed and performance of the turbofan (or jet in common usage) engine proved too seductive to ignore. Manufacturers such as Boeing and Douglas, who took the risk and designed swept-wing turbojet-powered aircraft, went on to be the winners in this high-stakes game. The many capable and reliable turboprop airliners, were relegated to being a footnote in the history of commercial aviation. De Havilland Canada’s Q-400 and the European Aérospatiale ATR-72 are the only turbo-prop airliners still being manufactured, mainly for regional airlines.
This is part of a series on the propliners of the 1950s and the slow transition to the jet age. It all began with the DC-3 of course, and my columns move through the other Douglas propliners, the Boeing 377, Lockheed’s Electras and the elegant Constellation. The Brabazon Committee which sparked such a wave of innovation in the UK with the Vickers Viscount, the Bristol Britannia and the ill-fated de Havilland Comet. Many other significant aircraft, such as Avro Canada’s innovative but aborted C-102 passenger jet and the Sud-Aviation Caravelle, which led us into the start of the Jet Age have columns too.
A few quirky segues I couldn’t resist: the ‘Double Sunrise’ flights between my two homelands Ceylon and Australia; the wonderful Carvairs and that very British habit of taking your car on holiday. I also had to write a paean to my beloved A380 and all my pilot friends in the Gulf as COVID ended that little dream.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the series as much as I have relished writing them. My special thanks to my old friend, mentor, editor and repository of knowledge Roger Thiedeman, for all the encouragement and support throughout this project.
