Vickers Vanguard

what is it?

The Vickers Vanguard is a short/medium-range turboprop airliner designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Vickers-Armstrongs. The Vanguard was developed during the mid-to-late 1950s in response to a specification issued by British European Airways (BEA) for a 100-seat airliner; Vickers decided to design such an airliner as a follow-up to the existing Viscount series, the principal difference from which being an expanded airframe that provided considerably more internal volume. Another key innovation was the Tyne engine, which was roughly twice as powerful as the Viscount's Rolls-Royce Dart engine, and allowed for increases in both cruising speed and altitude.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 turboprops · low wing · retractable tricycle gear · 36 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 679 km/hcruise speed
• seats 139passengers
• size 64 tmax take-off weight
• built 44made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 67 years ago, in 1959.
• 🚗Wingspan of 36 m: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 11 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.0× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.

spec sheet

first flight

1959-01-20

introduced

1960

retired

1996

status

retired

number built

44

role

airliner

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Vickers

engines

4× Rolls-Royce Tyne RTy.11 Mk 512

crew

3

passengers

139

length

37.4 m

wingspan

36 m

height

10.6 m

max take-off weight

64 t

top speed

—

cruise speed

679 km/h

range

—

ceiling

9,144 m

wings

low wing

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.