A recent "labour of love" of mine was to tidy up the profiles in the database for the above aircraft type.
For anyone having a particular interest, I would recommend ...
www.vickersviscount.net
.... a site which proved to be both very useful and intereresting.
Probably the biggest problem was acurately determining seating numbers across the aircraft variants and this was a response from the website in answer to my query.
HOW MANY?
Malcolm Clarke enquired, "I am unable to locate any data relating to the number of passengers each Viscount type carried. Will you please enlighten me?" Sounds simple enough but Ed Jones' explanation, as follows, shows that many different possibilities exist. "We probably never will know the absolute (non design wise) record of each type. Anyway, here is Ed's reply," the number of passengers depended on three things. Firstly the variant type, secondly the airline and finally the class of flight the airline in question was targeting. The original V630 had a short fuselage (74ft 6in) and could accommodate a maximum of 32 seats, 4 seats per row, two on each side, with a central aisle. The V700 variant had a fuselage extended to 81ft 2in and could accommodate more passengers. BEA decided on an option of 40 passengers in First Class (two each side of a central aisle) or 52 tourist passengers (three seats one side and two opposite the central aisle). The V701, when it came into service with BEA, carried 40 passengers in First Class or 47 Tourist seats. They were later converted in the 1960s to 60-63 seats. The 800 series, or Super Viscount, had a further extension to the fuselage with more powerful Dart engines and in the latter stages of their life were carrying as many as 80+ passengers. I hope this helps although the area is far too complicated to explain fully in an email, hopefully all the information will be posted on the web site in due course." Thanks Ed.
I intend to follow this up to incorporate such information when it becomes available..
Malcolm.
Admin Team.
