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Vickers Vanguard Sovereign Airways



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Template by TheTimMan. Logo and livery by Rigel

Vickers Vanguard Sovereign Airways

Sovereign Airways doesn't just operate long-range flights to America and Asia; They also specialise in short-range flights. In fact, that was their original service style when they were first founded in 1942.

In the mid-1950s, Sovereign Airways was in the market for a new 100-seater turboprop airliner to supplement, and eventually replace, its fleet of Vickers Viscounts. Vickers responded with a new Type 950 design, with an almost completely new fuselage, originally taken from the Viscount, by cut off halfway to the top, which was replaced by a wider fuselage section to create an almost double-bubble cross-section. With the new Tyne engines powering it along, the Vanguard was also one of the fastest turboprops in the world, faster than the current de Havilland Canada Dash 8 or Saab 2000.

Sovereign Airways started flights using the Vickers Vanguard in August 1960, with the maiden flight taking off from London Gatwick, and landing in Paris. The Vanguard would take over much of the work from the Viscount, operating flight smoothly and reliably. However, its time didn't last. Soon after the Vanguard entered service, British Aircraft Corporation, also known as BAC, launched the 1-11 program. The BAC 1-11 was about the same size as the Vanguard, and it was designed for the same role, but it had one critical advantage: The 1-11 was powered by jets, while the Vanguard had to make do with turboprops. Once the BAC 1-11 entered service with Sovereign Airways, the Vanguard was obsolete, leading most of the 24-strong fleet to be retired by 1966, but some were converted into freighters and sold off to other airlines.

Unfortunately, one Sovereign Airways Vickers Vanguard was lost in an accident at London Gatwick. While operating flight 773 from Frankfurt to London, on landing, the pilots noticed that they were coming in at too shallow of an approach angle, and they started to fly over the runway. Normally, the pilots would have issued a go-around and try again, but on this flight, the captain was quite inexperienced. The situation caused him to panic, reduce the throttles to just 20% power, and pushed the nose right down to get onto the runway. However, the plane ended up stalling, falling from the sky and crashing onto the runway, killing all 63 on board. The runway was closed for 6 hours while the mess was cleaned up. Investigators blamed the accident on pilot error. That was the only accident a Sovereign Airways Vanguard would suffer.

The last Sovereign Airways aircraft for a while. I'm going to shift my focus to other brands.

Also, showing some love for the less-used templates around AE!

#VanguardlooksbetterthanViscount

Also, leave feedback! Any and all feedback helps (but preferably constructive).