My turn now
The "NEARLY JETS" .... turbo-props .... or rather ...."Jet Engines Driving Propellers"
NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL AIRWAYS CORPORATION/NZNAC acquired acquired a fleet of 5 VISCOUNT 807's between January 1958 and February 1967.
4 of these aircraft were custom-built for NZNAC at the VICKERS production facility located at Wisely, Surrey, in the UK and as follows ....
ZK-BRD (C/N # 281) "City Of Wellington" .... delivered during January 1958.
ZK-BRE (C/N # 282) "City Of Auckland" .... delivered during February 1959.
ZK-BRF (C/N # 283) "City Of Christchurch" .... delivered during March 1959.
ZK-BWO (C/N # 428) "City Of Dunedin" .... delivered during May 1961.
During November 1966 a 5th aircraft was acquired by NZNAC .... from LOT POLISH AIRLINES (SP-LVC) .... and was delivered to the airline during February 1967 as ZK-NAI (C/N # 248) "City Of Palmerston North".
Throughout their 17 years of service to NZNAC these aircraft operated on main NZ trunk/domestic routes (AKL, WEL, CHC, and DUN) and throughout this period supported 3 variations of the airlines red/white/natural metal livery ....
VISCOUNT 807 NZ NATIONAL AIRWAYS CORPORATION ZK-BRE " City Of Auckland" (1959)
VISCOUNT 807 NZ NATIONAL AIRWAYS CORPORATION ZK-BRE " City Of Auckland" (1965)
VISCOUNT 807 NZ NATIONAL AIRWAYS CORPORATION ZK-BRE " City Of Auckland" (1970)
During the late 1950's, and early 1960's, NZNAC domestic service were also still being operated by DC-3 aircraft .... and supplemented by F27-100's which were acquired from 1960, followed by F27-500's from 1973, and a BN 2A-26 ISLANDER that was leased from MOUNT COOK AIRLINES and operated by the airline from 1976 until 1977, whilst B737-200's had also began entering service with NZNAC, and replacing VISCOUNT's, from 1968.
The last of the airlines VISCOUNT's remained in service until 1975. Only 1 of these aircraft remains in existence today .... ZK-BRF .... and which was presented to the Ferrymead Heritage Park Museum, in Christchurch, NZ, where it's been undergoing slow donation assisted restoration over many years ....
ferrymeadaero.org.nz/about/vickers-viscount-v-807/Beyond this single remaining aircraft almost 10 years were to pass before another VISCOUNT became active within NZ.
During the early 1980's SKYBUS was formed .... as a travel club .... under the banner of the AQUA AVIA SOCIETY .... and which intended to exploit a loop hole within NZ civil aviation law at the time, which it believed, allowed it to operate under the license of an aero club and with the intention of providing cheap air services to its membership to essentially challenge the might/monopoly of AIR NZ (and MOUNT COOK AIRLINES) on domestic routes within NZ. It had initially contemplated operating similar international services using DC-8-50's (though they probably couldn't have selected a worse aircraft for fuel economy) .... BUT .... these plans ultimately evolved into a single VISCOUNT 802 (ZK-SKY) being leased from BRITISH AIR FERRIES.
The NZ (MULDOON) government of the day did "everything within it's power to damage, and/or otherwise frustrate, the establishment of this competition .... since AIR NZ was still a state owned enterprise at the time. In fact I still very vividly recall the NZ Civil Aviation Director/Transport Minister of that era (KIPPENBERGER) publicly declaring, during a radio interview, that the VISCOUNT was "very old and people should think twice before flying on it" .... yet .... civil VISCOUNT operations were still common within the UK, at this time, and this particular aircraft had already passed its NZ engineering survey and crew route training/familiarization pre-qualification to the satisfaction of the NZCAD prior to the aircraft being accepted on the NZ civil air register.
As things came to pass SKYBUS existed for "a week only" during 1981 (performing nothing more that what amounted to a tour of NZ major cities for the lucky ones among its growing national membership, but which, for legal reasons, had to be operated as FOC services prior to the companies scheduled inaugural service date) .... until the company discovered that the NZ government had suddenly moved to close the legal loop hole which had allowed it to come into existence in the first instance and which then effectively prevented it from being able to operate at all.
SKYBUS/AQUA AVIA SOCIETY NZ VISCOUNT 80 ZK-SKY
Meanwhile a 2nd VISCOUNT 802 was being prepared by BRITISH AIR FERRIES, within the UK, and for delivery to SKYBUS .... but .... despite supporting the airlines livery it ultimately never made the long delivery flight to NZ prior the airline/aero club being forced to cease operations.
Prior to NZNAC acquiring Dutch-built F27's enormous political pressure had applied upon NZ, by the UK, to buy HP DART HERALD turbo-props. An aircraft was even demonstrated in NZ, but, upon carefully assessing its capabilities, versus those of the F27, NZNAC went the F27 way .... given the HERALD's inadequacy for the NZ market and operations. Similar occurred during the mid 1960's too .... in a similar political battle/drama which played out between the BAC ONE-ELEVEN and B737-200 and which firmly came down "in favor of the BOEING aircraft" .... and what ultimately became a NZ association with the B737 of some some 47 years duration ....
www.stuff.co.nz/business/72102770/air-nz-says-a-fond-farewell-to-the-737-after-47-years-in-the-skiesMark C
AKL/NZ
