To quote Tony Merton Jones
"Drop the name Eagle into any conversation amongst old aviation
friends, and immediately those grand nostalgia filled stories begin to
flow. Add the word Viking and those stories will never end".
Vickers Vikings lined up at
Blackbushe
In 1944 the Vickers design team lead by
Sir George Edwards, produce three designs for a short haul passenger aircraft.
The three designs were know as the Warwick Continental, the Windsor Empire
and the Wellington Continental. The most promising design was the Wellington,
this was modified with parts from the other 2 designs. Vickers gave this
plane the name VC1 - Vickers Commercial 1 - and in October 1944 the spec.
was issued for 3 prototypes, they were issued the registrations G-AGOK,
G-AGOL and G-AGOM.
After a massive effort at Vickers the
first plane G-AGOK took to the air on 22nd June 1945 in the hands of test
pilot "Mutt" Summers from Wisley Airfield. The three planes
few 160 hours of initial development flying.
G-AGOK was written off when
it was involved in anaccident when it had to make a forced landing at
Wisley
on the 23rd April 1946.
On the 5th April 1946 the Ministry of Aircraft Production placed an order
for 50 aircraft. The first aircraft off the production line was G-AGON,
which was used by BOAC Development Unit team at Hurn. It then when on
to BEA and was used at Aldermaston by their trainning unit and then on
to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, the reg. was changed
to VW214 for its time at the RAE. Eagle Aircraft Services bought the plane
on 21st July 1954. |