Vickers Viking returns to Blackbushe
The Blackbushe Heritage Trust already announced on 15 January 2023 that it intended to return Vickers Viking G-AGRW ‘Vagabond’ (c/n 115) back to Blackbushe Airport in the UK.
The British postwar airliner, descendent of the famous Wellington bomber spent a large portion of its career over there and the place was considered to be the perfect place for a lasting tribute. It is to become the well-deserved centerpiece in a new purpose built museum hangar. The exhibition is meant to visualize passenger operations at Blackbushe airport in the 1950s.
But there was still a slight problem: G-AGRW was still a resident of an Austrian airport, where the propliner had lastly served as a local McDonald fastfood restaurant. After the restaurant had closed, the condition of the Viking had only gone down. But it was considered to be in a condition worth saving.
And so on 21 April a party of trustees and volunteers of the BHT arrived at Bad Vöslau Airport in Austria. In the days before their arrival local firemen had succeeded in bringing back G-AGRW from soft soil back on the tarmac of the airport. Soon after the dismantling of the plane began. Using a large quantity of WD40, the engines came off first, followed by the outer wings and the landing gear sections. Then the inner stub wings came off leaving just the fuselage. The rear horizontal stabilizers also had to be removed. The tail had already been ‘removed’ by a storm some time ago! Next step was to remove all of the chipboard and wool insulation and remove all the traces of its past as a McDonalds. The all the parts were loaded on two open flatbed and a third closed trailer and the journey back to Blackbushe began. The arrival of the trucks is expected there on 2 May 2023.
The Viking has a rich history which began as an RAF transport (serial XF640). In April 1946 the plane was delivered as ‘G-AGRW’ to British European Airways at Northolt and named ‘Vagabond’. It later went on to operate with several independent operators including being leased to Airwork and operated by Hunting Clan.
Airwork and Hunting Clan are examples of many British independent Viking operators at Blackbushe and, of course, these two airlines went on to become British United Airways (BUA). BUA went on to become British Caledonian which merged into British Airways!
It is there fore that the airline has donated a significant amount of money to support the project. G-AGRW even has ties with the Netherlands as it was one of the three Vikings that served as a pancake restaurant in Soesterberg in the Sixties. After the closure of this restaurant the Viking ended op in Austria and the rest is history!
The plan is, once G-AGRW is restored to repaint her on one side in the colours of BEA ‘Vagabond’ and in the colours of Eagle Airways on the other. In doing so the plane will become a symbol of the various British airlines operating Vickers Vikings from Blackbushe.
Photo: Blackbushe Heritage Trust