The British built Vickers Vanguard was a short to medium range airliner produced in the United Kingdom. As a successor to the very popular Vickers Viscount, it first flew on 20 January 1959.
Seating up to 139 passengers, it was powered by four Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops and proved very fast. It first entered service with BEA on 17 December 1960, followed by Trans-Canada Airlines on 1 February 1961. Today, these airlines are known as British Airways and Air Canada.
Vickers Vanguard Video
Following on from the last video about the Soviet Ilyushin IL-18, this time we head over to the UK for a look at the Vickers Vanguard. Featuring a double bubble fuselage like the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, it had a large amount of passenger and cargo space.
The first video below is a short 38 second presentation of the aircraft at Farnborough in 1959. Featuring a posh British voiceover, there are some good air-to-air shots of the plane in flight.
Next up, running for about three minutes is a black and white presentation with no sound from British Pathé. It shows the delivery of the first Trans-Canada Airlines machine in 1960. Watch out for the air stairs, cockpit shots and more!
Finally, a five minute video of the final Vickers Vanguard landing at Brooklands Museum in 1996. By this time, the runway there had been shortened, so it was a challenge to get it down in the length remaining.
On this one you get to hear the sound of the aircraft, in both a flyby and landing. Seeing how short of the runway they actually landed indicates to me that they were quite concerned about stopping it successfully!
Overall Thoughts
Just 44 examples of the Vickers Vanguard were produced, with all going to the two original airlines. The turboprop was one of the fastest produced, faster than modern fast turboprops like the De Havilland Canada Dash 8.
Unfortunately, the advent of jet airliners spelled a fast end for the Vanguard. It finished passenger services with British Airways on 16 June 1974 and continued on carrying cargo as the Merchantman. In fact, it continued in this role until Hunting Cargo Airlines retired the final one in 1996, whereupon it was donated to Brooklands Museum at Weybridge in Surrey, where it can be seen today.
Did you ever have a chance to fly on a Vickers Vanguard and what was it like? Did you enjoy the videos? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Gabriel Desmond via Airliners.net.
I remember the Vanguard. I flew from London to Geneva in 1963. The stewardess offered me drinks and I asked her if they cost anything. She said yes, so I replied “I only drink free drinks.” A lovely aircraft, after flying one I never had any worries about flying again, which I do every year.
Haha – what an excellent reply! 🙂 Great to hear the Vanguard was a great aircraft that made you like flying. Thanks for the comment!
Yes , I remember the Vanguard well – flew on a few times from Amsterdam and London -I seem to remember that first class was at the back of the aircraft and our sets were red and black . Lovely roomy aircraft shame it was introduced into service so late with the advent of the lovely Trident which I flew on much more often. Lovely aircraft though and great footage of this beauty!
I think you remember correctly, as I hear first class was often at the rear of turboprops and piston engine propeller aircraft as that was the quietest place on board. Another article of mine has two inflight cabin pictures of the Vanguard here – https://travelupdate.com/inflight-aircraft-cabin-shots/ – the very top image and the other one. Exactly as you say! Nice that you got to experience both the Vanguard and the Trident – I sadly never did. Thanks for the comment!
At the age of 16 (September 1972), I flew down to London to start my first job. The plane was a Vickers Vanguard. To be honest, I don’t remember much about the flight, aside from seeing Buckingham Palace from the air and the passenger in front of me being airsick. At that time, buses took you and your luggage to the BEA terminal in Cromwell Road SW7. I made several more flights on the Vanguard, between London and Edinburgh, all on the BEA ticket, before defecting to British Caledonian and the BAC-1-11 somewhere around 1973.
Haha! Two interesting memories of that first flight there. I have heard they had terminals away from the airport back then, something which is virtually unheard of now. Great that you got to experience the aircraft! Thanks for sharing that.
Flew in the Viscount and Vanguard many times. Both were used as I remember on the shuttle to Scotland. Also was used on the service to Dublin. On one occasion, the aircraft did a very steep right hand turn and as it did so, I saw another aircraft about 300 metres away. I think it’s called a near miss!
That sounds like it would have got the heart rate up a bit! Great that you’ve been on both aircraft many times. They don’t make them like that anymore. Appreciate the comment!
Just recently finished my model of an Airfix BEA Vickers Vanguard, reg, G-APEL.
Wow, what a fantastic job you did with that! It looks spot on. I always loved the red wings on the BEA aircraft, it really looks great. Nice work and thanks so much for remembering to share a picture. That was certainly well worth the time and effort!
Many thanks.
Very interesting reflections and discussion of the Viscount’s “big brother”.
Writing from the antipodes I’m always interested in some local connection with aircraft types.
While I’m not sure any Vanguard actually landed in Australia, the type was operated a short distance away, in Indonesia, by Merpati Nusantara airlines.
Amongst my stash of model kits is an old Airfix Vanguard which I hope to paint in the Indonesian carrier’s light blue and yellow livery.
Merpati operated the type in an earlier colour scheme of a two tone dark orange/dark brown (or black) window cheat line very similar to the Ansett 1970’s livery.
It would be wonderful to discover that a Vickers Vanguard had more than a nearby connection with the land Down Under.
Thanks for the original post and subsequent comments all!
A website that I use as my go to when it comes to Australian aircraft is the excellent aussieairliners.org – http://www.aussieairliners.org/
It has records for every airliner operated in Australia along with a history of the particular airframe. Great detail in this site. When it comes to the Vanguard, you are correct, there is no record of one having been operated, but of course it is possible one landed in the country at some point, maybe even on a sales tour. You never know. Good luck with your model, I’m sure it’ll look fantastic once complete. Thanks for the comment!
What a nostalgic site this is! My first ever remembered flight was in a BEA Vanguard when I was 3 years old. That would have been 1965. I was sat on a stewardess’ lap in the jump seat in the cockpit behind Dad, who was the Captain. (Capt. Denis Eve). We would have been flying from LHR to ? My Dad would tell me years later as an adult that when he turned round in his seat to ask how I was, that I had given him “an enormous wink” as I looked at him from the comfort of the stewardess’ lap.
I also remember a night arrival at Gibraltar in a Vanguard?, as a small child with my parents, again in the 60s.
Dad once told me that flying the Vanguard was comparable to flying the Lancaster, (which he’d done with 40 Sqn, in Egypt in 1946-47), in terms of power and ease of flying. The Halifax, on the other hand, was heavy on the controls, needed a lot of strength to operate and was not enjoyable to fly.
Am currently making an Airfix BEA Vickers Vanguard, using the photos on this website to help in painting the fine details accurately, having donated the previous one I made years ago to British Airways Archives and Museum at Waterside, Heathrow. (originally bought by Dad, who never had time to make it himself). After he passed away in 1999, I also donated a large travel agent model he had of a BEA Vanguard, to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge. Hopefully, they still have it.
What excellent memories you have of the Vanguard, and that wink is pretty amusing! Nice to hear some of your Dad’s impressions too, regarding the Lancaster and Halifax. Not many people would have flown a Vanguard so it gives some comparison for readers on here. I’m sure that British Airways and Brooklands have your models, as I don’t think they would be something that would be disposed of. Good luck with the BEA Vanguard model! Those models do take a good eye and a steady hand, that’s for sure. Thanks for the comment!
My first flight, at the age of 12 (1963) was in a ‘Guardsvan’ to GLA. Flew at least 3 times to MLA on the late night flight (BE316 0045/0145) out of LHR, one time we landed during a storm bounced (the Vanguards were good at that) and drifted very slightly off the runway. Also flew to BFS once as part of the cockpit crew. I will always like the Vanguard although if you were sitting over the wings it did drone/vibrate quite a bit.
Hahaha! I have never heard it referred to as a ‘Guardsvan’ before. I love it! Nice that your first flight was on one of them. Sounds like you had some good experiences with the aircraft, even getting into the cockpit on a flight. Sounds pretty awesome to me. Good to also learn some new things about the bounce and vibration over the wings. Good times – thanks for the comment!
It was also sometimes called “The Whispering Warehouse” in its later freight guise. I flew the Merchantman (953 converted to all cargo) for Air Bridge Carriers.
Haha! I love that moniker for the aircraft! Fantastic that you got to fly it and thanks for sharing that!
I remember flying in the BEA Vanguard from LHR to Belfast a couple of times as a child in the mid 60’s.
I was used to flying the transatlantic BOAC 707’s and their RR jet engines.
The Vanguard turboprop engines were fascinating, and the plane was roomy and comfortable. At the time, the BEA Trident was introduced and I was excited to travel on that very modern aircraft. Never had a chance to fly the Vanguard again.
A few years later, I saw a Viscount in TCA or new AC livery. I don’t remember which, but it looked very dated to my eyes, especially with the round door.
Excellent that you had the opportunity to get on board one a couple of times. I’m sure it was different to the jets. Considering you also flew in Tridents and Boeing 707s, you really did get on board some great planes. I will agree the Vanguard did look quite dated in the AIr Canada colours, that’s for sure! Thanks for the comment.
In answer to your question, yes, I do remember the Vanguard very well. I first met it as a load control clerk for BEA in the late sixties planning loads and completing loadsheets. It was a capable of lifting massive loads without any of the trim problems that a lot of its contemporaries suffered from (unless, of course, you got a 951 on a night mail flight!).
I later flew it for over a thousand hours in its merchantman guise. Something rarely mentioned is that not only was it one of the fastest turboprops, but also the largest with connected manual controls (the Britannia had floating control surfaces with control tabs). On the Vanguard there were spring tabs to help, but when you moved the cockpit controls you were moving the control surfaces by hand. A good landing needed a good handful of nose up trim in the flare (no power on that either!)
The electrical system was a nightmare of basically 28 volt DC systems, but power generated by AC generators and fed to transformer rectifier units (TRU) that would supply 700 amps EACH. The electric starters could (and did) stall ground power units and needed in excess of 2000 amps to start the engines.
On take off there was the amazing sound of four Tynes producing just short of 20,000 horse power. I had one explode on take off once; the noise and the enormous shock through the floor made me think initially that the aircraft had come apart.
I have flown many aircraft since that are faster, bigger and easier to handle, but, with the Twin Otter, the Vanguard will always have place in my heart.
I wasn’t aware it had connected manual controls or was that fast for a turboprop, so this is great to hear. It sounds like it would have been an interesting aircraft to fly. Great to hear it’s one of the ones you really enjoyed flying. I’ll never have the opportunity to fly in a Vanguard, but I get to have a tiny bit of an insight from people like yourself who were there and can share their memories. This was a wonderful read, so thank you for taking the time to write. I really appreciate it!
Hello Verdun, you probably will not remember me, I was in Load Control the same time as you (1968-1980), as you say the Vanguard was a great aircraft from a weight and balance point of view, okay, the 951 on the late night mail to EDI was always a problem but the 953s were a dream. Flew with you on a jolly in a single engine A/C from an airfield just north of London (if I remember correctly) you were driving an old Ford Anglia at the time.
AC VCG CLE YYZ IN 1971. Space – lots of it and nice wide seats with huge amounts of legroom. Fantastic views from those large windows to.
I think it’s a crying shame those large windows don’t exist much any longer. The Viscount had them too – I’ve seen them in a museum, they are massive! Great to hear you experienced the Vanguard!
Anyone else notice that the nose on this aircraft really looks like the one on the new 787 Dreamliner?
I can definitely see what you mean there! I hadn’t thought of that before. Nice catch!
I flew both the Viscount and the Vanguard many times, I was very young but still remember it. I was a child but one strong memory was the oval door of the Viscount. The Vanguard was for me a much bigger plane. I also remember flying on the jump seat of the DC 8, I was about 10, the pilot was explaining how it was to fly this plane. Great childhood memories.
Yes, I remember seeing pictures of the oval shaped doors on the Viscounts. Apparently this was changed on later models as it was hard to keep it open in wind. Wow, jump seat of the DC-8 would have been something else. A fun experience that sadly we no longer have. Thanks for the comment!
In fact I found it a rougher aircraft (on which to fly) than the Viscount which I was also lucky to sample with another, smaller UK carrier. As I say the Vanguard was so unattractive to the high yield business traveller market that BEA had to replace its peak hour flights with jet aircraft. Even though British Eagle had only a few flights from LHR and BUA’s 1-11 operations were at LGW. In a similar way it’s like Flybe using jets for peak hour EDI-BHX flights once EZY arrives in 2020. (Flybe currently operates prop planes on EDI-BHX. It’s using Stobart to operate the flights. Stobart already operates a few Flybe services into LCY)
Yes, it’s not too surprising that it was supplanted by jets so quickly. Especially back at that time and passengers still prefer it where possible. Nice that you got to use the Vanguard, and a shame it didn’t catch on.
Flew the BEA Vanguard many times on domestic routes up until the mid-1970s (BEA launched Shuttle with Tridents only). In fact EDI-LHR was my first domestic flight. But the Vanguard wasn’t an aircraft I could like. It was full of noise and vibration. You had to talk loudly to your fellow passenger otherwise he or she would not be able to hear ! And first class was located in the rear cabin where things were a little less quieter. At weekends, when BEA did not offer first class on domestic routes, savvy passengers would make a bee-line to that rear cabin … no seat selection was offered at the time. What prompted BEA to start withdrawing the Vanguard from domestic routes was the arrival of 1-11 jet competition by BUA and British Eagle. At the end of the 1960s BEA brought in Comet 4Bs to operate its main domestic routes but *only* at peak times when most users were business people. Fortunately I myself managed to take one of those Comet flights with BEA for LHR-EDI (I bought a standby youth fare … inexpensive in those days) … an experience I can still recall to this day. Had it not been for the Comet I would by then have shunned BEA’s Vanguard domestic flights for the 1-11s of BUA.
That’s great that you got to fly on the Vanguard! Interesting to hear it was noisy and lots of vibration. Yes, jets were a lot better from a passenger perspective and still are. Thanks for the great information! Plus you got a Comet!! That’s so cool 🙂
Boy did I have it wrong! I thought for years I had flown a Vanguard from LHR to NCL on Northeast Airlines in 1974, before it was fully integrated into BA. I just did a little research and found out Northeast flew….Viscounts. So for the past 45 years I had flown on a Vanguard, at least in my mind. I know for SURE it was a Trident from NCL back to LHR. 😉 I don’t know whether to thank you for this post or not, lol.
haha well, either way you have a type that I never flew on 🙂 That’s something I’ll never get to do so I think you’re winning haha! 🙂
Flew the TCA version many times during the 1960s, by then reliveried as Air Canada, as I did the smaller Viscount. These were the mainstays of the short and medium haul fleet, though AC did fly 727s and DC9s as well. Most of my flights were between YYZ and YOW or YUL when attending university and serving as AC’s campus rep and working summers in the Toronto reservations office. I recall one of the two aircraft had the first class cabin in the back rather than the more traditional front of the plane.
That’s really cool that you got to do it 🙂 I’ve always heard that back in the day First Class was down the back for a quieter experience. Awesome that you got to work for them too! I’m really happy you got to do that, you’ll have an experience most can’t have! Thanks for the comment!
Do know, or recall when AC retired the Vanguard and Viscount from scheduled service?
Air Canada’s historical fleet page shows the Vanguard operating 1961 to 1972. The Viscount shows 1955 to 1974. Their historical fleet page is actually pretty well put together, so check it out here – https://www.aircanada.com/ie/en/aco/home/fly/onboard/fleet/historical-fleet.html