Wing span : 93ft 8in / 28.56m
Length : 85ft 8in / 26.11m
Max weight : 7228lbs / 32786kg
Service ceiling : 25,000ft / 7620m
Max speed : 352mph / 566kmh
Engine : 4 x Rolls Royce Dart turbo props
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VICKERS VISCOUNT 806 G-OPAS
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Interactive exhibit = cockpit access is permitted
The original design resulted from the brabazon committee's type VC2 design calling for a smaller medium range turbo-prop powered pressurised aircraft to fly 1750 miles and carry up to 24 passengers. British European Airways was involved in the design but asked that the plane carry 32 passengers.
The resulting Vickers V630 was designed at Brooklands by chief designer Rex Pearson and his staff in 1945 and its first test flight was at Wisley, Surrey on the 16th July 1948. The production V700 Viscounts were streached 6ft 6ins over the prototype V630 giving a length of 81ft 2in allowing a seating capacity of 43 in a two class layout as adopted by BEA.
The first BEA inaugurated scheduled V701 flight was in April 1953.
Forty five type V700's were built at Brooklands before production moved to allow construction of the new V800 to commence. The new Viscounts featured a 3ft 10in stretch over the V700 series.The initial production version of the V800 series, the V802, for BEA first flew on the 27th July 1956 seating 56 passengers in a two class layout with BEA receiving 24 V802 but BEA needed more and ordered 16 V806 (with more powerful engines) the initial fuselage construction taking place at Hurn.
The Viscount was operated by over 40 airlines and a few are still in service in Africa. Viscounts were also used in military operations.
G-OPAS first flight was on 6th March 1958 (then registered as G-AOYN (constructors number 263)) and delivered to BEA later that same month bearing the name "Sir Isaac Newton". Withdrawn from use and stored in April 1980 she re-entered service in February 1981 with several companies until she was re-named "Viscount Rotterdam" in January 1984. After several more years service she was re-registered G-OPAS on 5th October 1994 but was finally withdrawn from service in June 1996 before being broken up in February 1997, the forward fuselage being on display at Duxford until finally moving to Bournemouth Aviation Museum in 2007.