Vickers Viscount 806 – G-AOYP Virgin Atlantic Airways (First Issue)

Viscount 806 G-AOYP in the superb livery of Virgin Atlantic Airways. Early first issue from Jul 1999, has to be seen to be appreciated. Now hard to find. Length 7.25 inches, Wingspan 7.75 inches.

The Vickers 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.
It was during the 1940s that Vickers-Armstrong and Rolls-Royce proved that the gas-turbine engine was the powerplant of the future by developing the world class Viscount passenger aircraft and Dart engine.
This remarkable aircraft that so shattered the accepted notions of travel comfort and airline economics that its standards became accepted as a yardstick by which other forms of transport were measured. It is the story of the first turbo-prop airliner in the world, and the first transport type ever to break America’s monopoly of the commercial aircraft market.
Notable firsts:-
29 July 1950- British European Airways Corporation Viscount became the first gas turbine powered aircraft to carry fare paying passengers on a scheduled service anywhere in the world when it departed Northolt, England to Le Bourget, France.
13-17 February 1953– G-AMAV owned by the Ministry of Supply became the first gas turbine powered passenger aircraft to cross the Atlantic.
1 April 1955 Trans-Canada Air Lines operated the first gas turbine powered scheduled revenue service in North America as flght number 265 from Montreal to Winnipeg via Toronto, Canada.
4 April 1955– Trans-Canada Air Lines operated the first international gas turbine powered scheduled revenue service in North America from Toronto to Idlewild, New York, USA (now JFK / John F Kennedy airport).

In the early 1950s the Viscount was just as pioneering as Concorde was 20 years later. Indeed, in many respects the Viscount was more successful than Concorde. Designed by Sir George Edwards, who was also involved with the design of Concorde. When the Viscount was in full production, Vickers-Armstrong won orders from some 60 customers worldwide, amounting to a return of £177 million for the 439 aircraft sold.