Vickers VC.1 Viking

what is it?

The Vickers VC.1 Viking is a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. After the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines, pending the development of turboprop aircraft like the Viscount. An experimental airframe was fitted with Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets and first flown in 1948 as the world's first pure jet transport aircraft.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 piston engines with propellers · mid-wing aircraft · retractable tailwheel (taildragger) · 27.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 423 km/htop speed
• seats 38passengers
• size 15.4 tmax take-off weight
• built 163made 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 81 years ago, in 1945.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.3× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 27.2 m: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1945-06-22

introduced

1946

status

retired

number built

163

role

airliner

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Vickers-Armstrongs

engines

2× Bristol Hercules 634

passengers

38

length

19.9 m

wingspan

27.2 m

height

6 m

max take-off weight

15.4 t

top speed

423 km/h

cruise speed

338 km/h

range

—

ceiling

7,620 m

wings

mid-wing aircraft

landing gear

retractable conventional landing gear

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