Last of the Viscounts farewelled

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33960, 29 September 1975, Page 1

Last of the Viscounts farewelled

What is probably the last scheduled flight in the world by one of the most successful aircraft ever built, the Vickers Viscount, ended when the aircraft touched down at Christchurch Airport yesterday at 5.45 pan.

| ZK-BWO, better known as j “City of Dunedin,” has been I sold to a firm of aircraft i brokers in Sydney, and will j probably serve the rest of its flying life in the East. Its selling price was less than 5 per cent of its original cost of almost £600,000. N.A.C. is thought to be the last airline to use Viscounts on regular flights. Among the guests and usual passengers for the last flight were three of the corporation’s former senior pilots, Captains H. G. Walker, G. Harvey, and C. H. Register, the delivery crew for the first of N.A.C.’s Viscounts, Mr T. R. Pike, of the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Transport, who also travelled on its delivery Eght, and Mr J. Mathison, a rmer Minister of Civil

Aviation, who officially welcomed the crew and aircraft when it arrived in New Zealand on January 10. 1958. Many people will remember the Viscount with affection, as a smooth, reliable and safe aircraft. N.A.C. has owned five Viscounts during the 17 years and eight months the aircraft has been in use. They have carried 6.02 m passengers, on 134,450 I scheduled and charter flights, land in 168,620 revenue-flying hours the aircraft used 234 m litres (51.4 m gallons) of fuel, and flew 55.9 m kilometres (34.7 m miles). The “City of Dunedin” was one of a third series of Viscount aircraft. In 1945 the Vickers Armstrong design staff began work on a medium-range airliner, using the latest method of propulsion, the propeller-turbine engine, which gave speed, economy, efficiency and ease of maintenance. ZK-BWO was built in Britain and bought by N.A.C. on May 20, 1961. It arrived in New Zealand on July 28, and began its regular service the next month. It was the fourth of the five Viscounts. When the Viscount 807 series was introduced it was one of th> fastest airliners of

its type. It had a cruising speed of 528km/h (328 m.p.h.) and a top speed of 620 km/h (385 m.p.h.), carried 62 passengers, two pilots and two hostesses, at an all-

up weight of 29,364 kg (64,600 lb) using 1492 litres of fuel (328 gallons) an hour. The four Rolls Royce turbo-propeller Dart 510 en-

gines each developed 1600 shaft horsepower. “City of Dunedin” was an expensive buy, Mr Mathison recalled. The first had cost about £320,000. but, to produce the fourth one for N.A.C., Vickers had had to retool, which almost doubled the price. Vickers had offered N.A.C. two “at a special discount price,” but the corporation had not been able to afford the other aircraft, and later bought one from a Polish group, the finance for this coming from Japan.

When the National Government of the time made the decision to buy Viscounts, it was clearly the best aircraft of its day, and not the difficult decision that the later choice of the Fokker was. Captain Walker had completed the technical training for Viscounts before he visited the Vickers factory, where he accompanied the test pilot on the proving flights for the first Viscount -—the “City of Wellington.” Captain Harvey spent six months in Australia with T.A.A. to gain experience with the aircraft. Both had the highest regard for the aircraft, which, thejj. said, was “most docile.” •

Captain B. D. Dunn commanded the last flight. He said that all of the Viscount captains had requested yesterday’s duty, and he had been lucky to be chosen. On Monday week he would begin training for the Boeing service.