|
|
The Vickers Viscount: The World's First Turboprop AirlinerStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionBy some margin the most successful British medium-range airliner ever produced, the world-beating Viscount was a sublime combination of Vickers state-of-the-art post-war design and Rolls-Royce s cutting-edge power-plant technology, both companies being at the very peak of their powers during the type s genesis and evolution. Tracing its origins back to the wartime Brabazon Committee, the Viscount was one of several designs from various British aircraft manufacturers produced to fulfill the committee s specifications for a fast, economical short- to medium-range airliner to satisfy the demands of the burgeoning post-war civil aviation market, which was predicted to grow at a healthy rate over the following decades. Vickers chief designer and Managing Director George Edwards was quick to respond, the result being the Dart turboprop-powered Vickers V.630, which made its first flight in July 1948, despite its future looking uncertain after British European Airways having twenty examples of ordered its chief rival, Airspeed s Ambassador, six months before. Author descriptionNick Stroud, son of Mike Stroud (Founding Editor of IATA News Review and Founding Assistant Editor of Aircraft Illustrated), has worked full-time in aviation publishing since 1994, when he began his career working on Aerospace Publishing s highly-respected titles World Air Power Journal and Wings of Fame. During 2000 2010 Nick realised a lifelong ambition to work for another highly-regarded aviation publication, IPC s award-winning Aeroplane Monthly, with which he rose to the position of Deputy Editor. In 2012 Nick and Aeroplane Editor Michael Oakey launched The Aviation Historian, a fiercely independent quarterly journal, which continues to grow and has established a reputation as the UK's most authoritative independent publication on the subject. Nick is also the UK Editor for Challenge Publications Air Classics and Warbirds International in the USA, and a regular feature writer for numerous aviation publications. |