Vickers Viking
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Bill Krouwel, e-mail, 21.03.2024 14:54

Canberra? BEA? Don't think so...


Bill Krouwel, e-mail, 21.03.2024 14:49

I too took the flight Blackbushe-Nice-Luqa in 1955, aged 7. We stayed three days at Luqa (due to engine problems), then on to Idris (Tripoli), Benina (Benghazi) and finally El Adem (we went to live in the adjacent town of Tobruk). The alps were indeed a highlight, as were some beautiful mediterranean islands and the low approach to Luqa, with the lights of Valetta and the coloured buses down below. I also recall the Eagle Airways hostesses serving up boiled sweets before takeoff to help us cope with the reduction in air pressure as we climbed. The start of a very happy 5 years of my life...


Nicholette, e-mail, 13.01.2022 04:32

No you are not dreaming I too remember the Alps, the tiny houses as a 'high point' of the trip that stuck in my mind too. The whole trip made me become a pilot.


Peter moore, e-mail, 19.02.2018 20:54

I flew (aged 4) in a Vickers Viiking via Nice to Malta in eight hours landing @ Lucqa.Sure the passport control was a hut,can,t be sure I was only 4.My dad was a submariner in T class subs,.I remember the plane climbing over the alps.(or am I dreaming?)


Steve Fremgen, e-mail, 11.04.2017 18:01

I rode on a BWIA Viking with my father when we were on holiday, from Trinidad to Tobago in 1954. Tobago's Crown Point Airport at that time only had a grass runway which made it even more fun. BWIA ran DC-3s and Vikings on that run on alternating days. We rode back on a DC-3.


Geraldine Fitzgerald, e-mail, 06.02.2017 20:47

At the age of 11 (1956), I also flew with my mother in a Viking from Salisbury, Rhodesia to London. There was just one hostess and she allowed me to help collect cups from some of the passengers. It was a trip of 4 days, stopping overnight at 3 different countries on the way. We flew back on a new Viscount. A trip I shall never forget.


Peter Hill, e-mail, 02.02.2017 13:20

I was a LAME (Instruments) with Airwork at Blackbushe 1949 - 1956. Also member 622 Aux. Sqdn.


George Adams, e-mail, 02.02.2017 05:57

1955 august. Heathrow to Nice ( lunch) Malta (night stop Phoenicia hotel), next morning Benghazi, wadi Halfa for the night. Then Khartoum,Entebbe, and finally Nairobi. Airwork. A month later return by Hunting Clan. Miss the sound of the big pistons


Patrick Ford, e-mail, 30.09.2016 23:41

I remember flying in one of these planes - it was a test flight for S.A.A I guess in the late 40s or early 50s.It was seriously bumpy and very noisy and I remember being very sick.


Chris Cooke, e-mail, 11.04.2016 00:05

I have a picture of a Viking at my local Pub. it has the signage of the Royal Radar Establishment, must have been late '50s. Anyone any idea what it might have been doing in Buxted, East Sussex


Max moscrop, e-mail, 17.02.2016 16:09

in about 1950 when I was 9 years old I flew from Nairobi to blackbush in what I believe was a vickers viscount, I was travelling alone having to leave Africa rather urgently due to mau mau. I have not been able to trace any flight details but the name viscount does ring a bell, would anyone know if the viscount was used on this trip. I seem to recall staying overnight in Khartoum.


Michael, e-mail, 07.10.2015 22:24

I flew from Bovingdon,Herts to Malta in 1953 in a Huntings Airline Viking----we stopped at Nice for refuelling. I remember sitting just behind the hump which allowed me to put my feet up and have a sleep.


Bruce Williams, e-mail, 27.06.2015 02:06

I flew from Blackbush to Luqa (Malta) on 8th February 1957. We stopped at Nice for refueling where I remember buying a postcard in the small airport lounge and posting it to my grandmother back in the UK. The flight seemed to take forever - I'd love to know how long it really took.


roy harvey, e-mail, 01.04.2015 17:31

I think it was a Vickers Viking that I flew on to Nairobi in 1949. We were going to meet my father who worked on the peanut scheme. If it wasn't a Viking, then it was an aircraft with a wingspan that you had to climb over to get to the front of the cabin.


Alan McFarland, e-mail, 03.12.2014 23:43

I flew many times in a Viking from Belvedere (Salisbury) to Ndola and experienced a number of heart stopping drops in the bumpy air. Stepping over the hump across the aisle was rather odd. Just missed the flight that lost a wing over Southern Tanganyika. One bump too many there! Shauri ya Mungu
The Salisburyites ponder mightily when the Vikings and Dakotas flew over the city on takeoff from Belvedere! Airport!


Tony Porter, e-mail, 31.10.2014 13:52

I flew in Vikings throughout the 50s & early 60s, as my father was an exec with first Airwork (out of Elmdon Airport) and later Tradair (Southend) which converted the sold-off Kings Flight Vikings to run package tour charters. We were among the earliest of the first wave of British tourists to the Costa Brava, when places like Lloret were just sleepy fishing villages. Also flew to Rotterdam and Paris a few times. My father was heavily involved in the Airwork 'Safari' tours to Kenya, mentioned elsewhere by John Hopkins. Loved the Vikings - old crates, but such character! (And they flew low enough that you could watch the landscape roll past like an unfolding survey map.)


Surendra Shirali, e-mail, 14.06.2014 18:17

Struggling very hard to obtain a Plastic Model Kit of Vickers Viking 1B. scale models 1/72 or bigger.
Can someone tell me where to get one. Will be extremely grateful for the information.


Frank Astor, e-mail, 07.06.2014 11:18

I too have flown in a Viking!
It was on 26/4/1956. We left from. Ciampino (Roma) for Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. It snowed on Rome the day before so we were delayed by a day and we arrived on 29/April, my 22nd birthday!
We spent one night at Marsa Matruk, (Egypt) one at Whadi Halfa (Sudan) and last at Entebbe (Tanganyka).
At Whadi Halfa, we slept on a river boat anchored in the Nile, it was my first experience of sleeping under a net as mosquitoes buzzed outside trying to get at me!
At Entebbe, as we waited for supper to be ready, I ran to the edge of Lake Victoria as I saw some Hyppos grazing. Camera in hand I took 3 photos and ran back when I heard the dinner's tune played on the xylophone.
We had lunch at Malta, at Entebbe (Sudan) and Ndola (Northern Rhodesia), while we had suppers in the hotels where we slept.
The pilot flew low after Entebbe and zigzagged to afford us better sightings of herds of buffaloes, wildebeests, giraffes and elephants. In Sudan we saw mile after mile of flat sand with here and there a rock or a boulder with a tail of sand pointing to north from its top to eventually reaching the floor. They looked as so many cones of ice-cream all fallen on the sand, all in the same direction.
We left Ciampino at about 8am and reached Bulawayo at about 5pm four days later, having flown at 388km/h cruising speed. Smooth landings all the way: excellent pilot and good weather!
My first flying experience!
The worst plane I flew in, afterwards, was a BEA Canberra from Rome to Johannesburg: noisy and vibrations all the way!
The smoothest flights: a DC10 and the latest 303s jumbos, with TV games and on board cameras looking ahead (pilot's view) and down to the ground below. Beautiful when the plane is not full and I can use three screens: one to see where we are (on a map), one to look down, play a video game in another and see the clouds from the windows. That's flying! Yet I remember the Viking's as one of my most cherished experiences.
Frank Astor


keith humphrey, e-mail, 28.03.2014 13:41

Hello,
I to traveled from Ndola in Northern Rhodesia to England in one of these planes in both 1951 and again in 1953.The route on both occasions was Ndola ,Tabora Entebbe (night Stop) Juba Wadi Halfa (night stop) either Bengazo or MursaMatru Valleta (night stop)Nice (sometime night stop owing to head winds)and the UK .I would love to do the route again in the same aircraft.I believe they were all operated by Hunting Clan. In 1953 we remained at Wadi Halfa for 3 or 4 days as the aircraft developed a technical fault and we had to await spares coming from England.Whilst we were there ,there was some people travelling overland from the U.K. to South africa in an old Bentley and they had been in Wadi for some months awaiting new tyres so they could continue.During the late 60 and early 70 the Rhodesian airforce operated dc3's as cargo - resupply aircraft in which i was fortunate to fly in.
I have some pictures of the Viking at Ndola airport cica 1951


John Hope, e-mail, 23.03.2014 21:09

I flew from the UK to Luqa Malta in May 1956 but cannot remember where from but remeber calling at Nice and also Naples on the way. As I am writing a book which incorporates this flight any enlightenment would be appreciated.


John Spencer, e-mail, 04.02.2013 05:49

I don't remember my first trip in a Viking as I was only 5 months old. It was from London, Blackbush to Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in November 1947 and I was accompanied by my mother and grandmother. Years later my family lived less than a mile from the then Salisbury airport at Belvedere and mum worked for Central African Airways. I would often ride my bike to the airport and would visit the hangers and ride around the taxi tracks. No security in those days and there would always be a mechanic around to let a little boy climb aboard the CAA Vikings and DC3s parked there. CAA disposed of their Vikings in about 57 or 58 but, just before they did mum took me to Bulawayo and back on one as I'd always had a great affection for them. I've flown many times since on many different aircraft but none will ever be as memorable as that last Viking flight.


David Alan Smith, e-mail, 16.01.2013 08:14

At age 5 I flew in a Viking from London on our family's first trip in a plane (possibly Bovingdon and I cant remember if it was hunting Clan or BEA) via Rome, Haifa, Wadi Halfa then to Entebbe and finally Nairobi. We stayed overnight in Rome, Haifa and Wadi Halfa. That was in early 1949. The pilot brought the plane down to a much lower height over Northern Uganda so we could see some wild life. But in the process I remember feeling airsick because the hot African air caused airpockets as the plane rose and fell through them.


Ross Cameron, e-mail, 03.12.2012 11:43

My first flight was an Eagle Airways from Blackbush in 1956 to Gibraltar doing my National Service.We were taken off the plane twice while they corrected a fault before finally getting away at the third attempt.Landing at Gibraltar in a storm was a frightening experience.The return trip in '58 was in a Viscount landing at Northolt. A much more comfortable flight.


Lester Stenner, e-mail, 29.09.2012 16:49

My most memorable flight was in Viking G-AJBT, 15-07-60, Blackbushe-Gatwick-Renfrew-Bergen-Ostend-Renfrew-Gatwick, spread over two days. The Viking was owned by Claydon Holdings, and flown under the name Pegasus Airlines, based at Luton.


Lester Stenner, e-mail, 23.09.2012 20:55

I flew many hours in Vikings from Blackbushe on training flights. G-AIXR, IXS, JFT, JFS, HOP. During a single engine approach to 08 at B/Bushe, other engine stopped at 250feet, a slightly heavy landing but didn't even burst the tyres.


john hopkins, e-mail, 15.05.2012 23:50

I frequently flew from Freetown to Blackbush in the 50's.
This was the 'Safari Service' run by Airwork and Hunting Clan. Three days, two overnight stops, no in flight refreshments, generally stewerdess and two pilots. Always loaded like a arab bus and often a struggle to get off the ground. Very good hotels in Gibralter, Tangier, Bathhurst, (now Banjul), Agadir, and Casablanca, depending on route, weather and inward/outward. Lunch at Villa Cisneros was totally unbelievable. Never had so much fun. Of course, my grandchildren and their friends find it hard to believe. (I've written a full record of one trip for them).


Paul Scott, e-mail, 07.02.2012 17:35

Like gblanks,I too flew to Malta in a Viking. It was on the 4th.May 1952 from Blackbush, refuelling at Nice and took 8 hours. I particularly remember landing at Nice as we appeared to be landing in the sea when the runway appeared at the last moment! As a seven-year old, this was very memorable. Three years later on our return, we flew back in a Viscount. Twice as many engines, but it still took 6 hours.60 years on and things certainly have changed, although I can still go to Malta today to many places that are just as they were in 1952.


Maxx England, e-mail, 12.10.2011 11:44

I remember, about 1964, a Victa Airways (from memory, research indicated it was one of those 3 men and a dog operations) Viking flying out of Elmdon on a day so windy and gusting that nobody without a desperate need for money was flying.

It trundled down the tarmac, started to stagger into the air. Then it was hit by and almighty blast of wind head on, and immediately rose up an unsolicited 100 feet. Then the gust fell away, and there was a long moment where the flat out engines clawed the now highly nose up aircraft forwards. I swear I could see the pilot looking up at the sky and saying, "I'll go to church, I'll go to church!". They got away with it. Wonder if he kept his word?


Roy Kirk, e-mail, 25.09.2011 18:04

My father worked on the ill fated Ground Nut Scheme in Tanganyika.My mother and two sisters and I flew out to join him in 1949,we flew in a Viking from London Airport refuelled in Nice Broke down in Malta,overnighted,refuelled in North Africa I dont reacall where(I was 9 years old)and landed finally in Dar es Salaam.I remember the in flight food was sandwiches,and the pilot passed round an houly sitrep on paper


Ken Wright, e-mail, 26.07.2011 19:22

The RAF had a version of this plane known in the service as the Valleta or as we called it "The Pig". In 1953 we left Shajah in the Gulf on our way to Baghdad when the under cariage stuck up but would not lock or drop. Redirected to Manama in Barain,in flight,everything movable was dumped, it made the sweetest belly landing, bent props, flat bottom, we had one hell of a thirst.


gooda, 20.06.2011 14:20

He may have been wearing a mask or it could have been that the cockpit was just too noisy.


Bill Thompson, e-mail, 01.05.2011 07:45

GAGRP belonged to Hunting Clan air transport. I flew as a passenger from Nairobi to Heathrow in 1956. It took 3 days with night stops on the ground. Routing was Nairobi, Entebbe, Juba, Khartoum, Wadi Halfa(nightstop, Benghazi, Malta(night stop) Nice, Heathrow. This was my first airline trip, I returned along the same route a month later. I too remember the stewardess having to climb over the mainspar whilst serving people.


John Morris, e-mail, 22.02.2011 18:48

my1st flight -Blackbushe to Luqa Malta 1953 when in RAF, took 8 hours!Refueled Nice-told not drink the water!


Bill Gibson, e-mail, 04.12.2010 18:49

I flew round trip on a Viking from Frantfurt's Rhein-Main Flughafen to Blackbushe outside London in March 1957. The purpose of the flight: The Senior Class Trip of the Mannheim American High School, operated by the U.S. Army for military dependents. I recall thinking it looked like an obese DC-3.
This was not my first flight- my most recent trip before that was from Idlewild in New York (now JFK) to Frankfurt aboard an Pan Am B-377 Stratocruiser, which was the Airbus A380 of it's day. That flight was in October, 1954, and was the first of over six hundred Atlantic crossings over the next fifty-five years as both a passenger and as a crew member.

Bill Gibson
International Captain, Delta Airlines (Retired)


Gordon Hammond, e-mail, 14.11.2010 13:46

I worked and flew on this aircraft many times as I was working for Hunting Clan, an airline operating flights mainly to Africa from Heathrow. For example the "Safari" route took four days to get to Salesbury in Rhodesia with four overnight stops on the way.
We had about four of this type and being a Licenced Radio Enginer i maintained the communications and navigation systems.Have many memories of those days.


valter, e-mail, 05.11.2010 19:35

The Viking, together with C47, started charter holiday flights to North Sardinia in summer 1954 on behalf of Horizon Holidays in UK. It was the beginning of the tourism in the island.


Brian Smith, e-mail, 10.10.2010 21:42

I lived in Greenford Middx., Vikings frequently overflew our house coming in and out of Northolt, as a lad in the late 1940's I got quite used to hearing those lovely Bristol engines droning across the summer skys.


B.Tuton, e-mail, 01.10.2010 02:30

Was a youngster working as a lineboy in Louisville, Kentucky in the late '50s... At dusk one rainy autumn Sunday night an old Viking with Mexican Air Force markings landed just as I was preparing to close and go home. I parked her - occupants were a MAF Colonel and a Captain, plus the Colonel's lady. They were headed for Europe. Acft required unusually large amounts of oil and a load of gas. While the Col and lady went for dinner, I serviced the plane and helped the captain as he crawled up in the belly through a hatch to fix a leak in the de-icing alcohol system. He passed out in there and I pulled him out by the feet. After a while the Col.& company returned, they climbed aboard and all departed for Newfoundland, their next stop. Interesting airplane. Haven't seen one since. Left a big oil puddle on the ramp under each Bristol.


E.Lowe, e-mail, 11.09.2010 00:45

The Kings flt. Later the Queens flt. had 5 Vikings.
VL246, VL247, VL232, VL233. The 5th. a/c being a flying workshop used on the post war South African tour. (its RAF No.escapes me.


David Hargreaves, e-mail, 17.03.2010 20:49

My first flight on any aircraft was in an Aer Lingus Viking.
I was about six years old. Even so I recall taxying past various aircraft before take-off (from Manchester airport I think). When in flight I was invited to the flight deck where I sat in the co-pilot's seat. The pilot spoke to me but I couldn't understand him. He may have been wearing a mask or it could have been that the cockpit was just too noisy.


joseph lock, e-mail, 11.01.2010 04:01

I flew in an eagle airways viking to malta in 1957. my father was in the uk forces stationed there. We left Blackbush late at night (foggy memory - i was 11 years old )and refuelled in Nice early in the am before flying on to Luqa. I remember the stewardess had to climb over the main spar to serve people at the front. Was the first time I ever flew in an aeroplane - fantastic. By the way the return to the UK after my dad's tour was in a Cunard Eagle DC6B to Gatwick
rgds
Joe


joseph lock, e-mail, 11.01.2010 03:59

I flew in an eagle airways viking to malta in 1957. my father was in the uk forces stationed there. We left Blackbush late at night (foggy memory - i was 11 years old )and refuelled in Nice early in the am before flying on to Luqa. I remember the stewardess had to climb over the main spar to serve people at the front. Was the first time I ever flew in an aeroplane - fantastic. By the way the return to the UK after my dad's tour was in a Cunard Eagle DC6B to Gatwick
rgds
Joe


John Hancocks, e-mail, 22.12.2009 05:29

First aircraft I ever flew in...operated by Orient Tata I believe, December 1949 and travelling from Karachi to Bombay...aged 5 all I can recall is the rattle and vibration. Later I again encountered them as "Lollypop special" charter planes on the W.Africa run.


Derek Bosse, e-mail, 08.12.2009 10:55

Does anybody have 1/72 scale 3 view drawings of the Vickers Viking 1B. Please contact me. Thanks.


gblanks, e-mail, 02.08.2008 23:01

p s eagle airways from bushey airdrome ??


GBLANKS, e-mail, 02.08.2008 22:59

flew out to malta in one 1952 how things have changed


bruce milne, e-mail, 30.11.2006 00:17

As a yougster I used to watch the CAA viking come in to land at Lusaka airport every morning on my way to school just a little before 8am Bruce




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