VH-TVA Vickers 720 Viscount 'John
Batman'
(c/n 44)
In 1952 Trans
Australia Airlines placed an order for six of the new, prop-jet
Viscount airliners.
They were the first airline outside of
Europe to do so. Seen above is the ill-fated first aircraft
of the batch, VH-TVA in the U.K.
(probably Hurn) before departure for Australia in 1954.
This shot is from the Peter Gates
collection. The shot below is a less than
awe-inspiring image
from my own collection taken at Essendon
on the day of its arrival from the
U.K.
In those
days it was normal for the populace at
large to turn out to view the latest technological
advances
in
aviation. Today, new models enter airline fleets more or less
unannounced and public interest
of this nature is a thing of the
past. VH-TVA was lost in a crash whilst crew training at
Mangalore,
Victoria on 31 Oct 1954. The
Viscount was being operated on a
3-engine training flight when it
crashed soon after lifting off the
runway. It was determined that
the pilot-in-command probably
took the
aircraft into the air at a speed below the minimum control speed,
following loss of
directional
control during the ground run. Limited
experience on the type was given
as the
principal cause
of the
accident. At the foot of the page is a shot from the
archives of the Civil
Aviation Historical Society
showing the wreckage at Mangalore
