P4131 VICKERS VIKING - CHANNEL AIRWAYS

Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British passenger plane from the Cold War period, which was flown in June 1945, and during serial production (which lasted in 1945-1954), about 165 machines of this type were produced. The aircraft, in the VC.1B version, was 19.86 meters long with a wingspan of 27.2 meters. The drive was provided by two Bristol Hercules 634 engines with a maximum power of 1690 HP each. The maximum speed was 423 km / h, with the maximum range of 2,700 kilometers. The VC.1 Viking model was developed by the Vickers-Armstrong Limited company based on the guidelines of the British Ministry of Aviation, which already aimed at the end of World War II to introduce into series production as soon as possible a domestic civilian aircraft designed to handle passenger traffic on short and medium-sized distances. As the emphasis was on starting production as quickly as possible and the simplicity of the entire structure, the manufacturer used in the new plane some elements from the Wellington bomber - mainly the wing and the landing gear. Vickers VC.1 Viking turned out to be quite successful and important passenger plane in the history of British aviation, constituting a kind of intermediate link between passenger machines from before World War II, and planes powered by turboprop and jet engines. The machine was also successfully exported to, among others: Argentina, Austria, Denmark, France and Mexico.