Brooklands and Aviation
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Aircraft Park, Brooklands Museum
Hawker Harrier GR1 XV741
XV741
This aircraft, registration XV741, was one of the first to enter service with the RAF. It won the prize for the fastest crossing from London to New York in the 1969 Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race by taking off from a disused coal yard near St Pancras Station and landing on a pier on the River Hudson. Squadron Leader Tom Lecky-Thompson made the crossing in 6 hours, 11 minutes and 57 seconds and received fuel from taker aircraft ten times on route.
BAC One-Eleven
G-ASYD
Vickers Viking
G-AGRU
Developed as a civil version of the Wellington bomber, this was Britain's first postwar airliner and played a significant part in the development of British civil aviation, particularly with many independent airlines. Designed by Rex Pierson and built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Brooklands, the prototype (G-AGOK) made its first flight from nearby Wisley on 22/6/45. Many Wellington components were used in its construction - easing the transition towards peacetime aircraft production at Weybridge - including geodetic wings, engine nacelles and undercarriages. Total production was 163 Vikings, all built at Brooklands from 1945-47.
Registered G-AGRU, this was the 12th Viking built and was the second Viking to be delivered to BEA (named ‘Vagrant’) on 9/8/46. Three crew and 21 passengers were carried. In early 1948 the aircraft was bought by British West Indian Airways and served in the West Indies operating from Trinidad as VP-TAX from April 1949 to late 1954.
G-AGRU returned to Britain in April 1979 for display at the Cosford Aerospace Museum. In July 1991 British Airways and the National Rescue Group moved the airliner by road to Brooklands Museum and Museum volunteers began its restoration in 1997. Now the UK’s only surviving Viking, G-AGRU was formally donated by British Airways to Brooklands Museum in 2005.
Vickers Vanguard
G-APEP
The Vanguard was a private venture airliner built to a British European Airways (BEA) specification for high-density medium range routes. Powered by new Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprop engines, the prototype was first flown by Jock Bryce and Brian Trubshaw from Brooklands on 20/1/59. Twenty Vanguards were sold to BEA and 23 to Trans Canada Airlines - a total of 44 built at Brooklands from 1959-63. Passenger operations ended in Indonesia in 1987. Some of the nine 'Merchantman' freighter conversions for BEA in the early 1970s still flew with Hunting Cargo Airlines Ltd (previously Air Bridge Carriers) in the 1990s.
G-APEP ('EP) first flew from Brooklands on 29/11/61. Named 'superb', it joined BEA at Heathrow on 13/12/61.
After nine years carrying passengers, ‘EP was converted into a Merchantman by BEA in 1969-70. It re-entered service on 23/2/70 and joined the new British Airways Cargo division on 1/4/74.
G-APIM
The Vickers Viscount, the world's first turboprop airliner, was one of the few commercially successful aircraft programmes of post-war Britain.
The first flight of the prototype was made at Wisley on 16/7/48 and in 1953 the first production aircraft, which were powered by four 1,890hp Rolls-Royce Dart RDa.7 Mk520 engines, entered regular service with British European Airways (BEA). Viscount production ceased in the early 1960s after 444 had been made.
G-APIM ('IM), was one of the last Viscounts built at Brooklands. First flown from Brooklands on 4/6/58, it was delivered to BEA named 'Robert Boyle' on 23/6/58, serving with this airline until 1969. Briefly with Cambrian Airways in 1971-72, then British Airways from 1973-82, ‘IM joined British Air Ferries (BAF) at Southend in 1982.
About Aircraft Park, Brooklands Museum
Brooklands Museum is a motoring and aviation museum occupying part of the former Brooklands motor-racing track in Weybridge, Surrey, England.
Formally opened in 1991, the museum is operated by the independent Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd, a private limited company (No.02109945) and a registered UK_charity (No.296661); its aim is to conserve, protect and interpret the unique heritage of the Brooklands site
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