Recovery of Vickers Viking from Cosford 1991

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In 1991 I recovered the Vickers Viking G-AGRU 'Vagrant' from the Cosford RAF Museum back to Brooklands The Vicking had been operated by BEA and was the 12th one built at Brooklands, having first flown on the 19 July 1946. Two years later BEA sold the aircraft to British West Indian Airways and it operated in the sun out of Trinidad until the mid fifties. Over the next ten years the aircraft had several owners, but it stopped flying in September 1963 The design had been based on the second world war bomber the Wellington and the centre wing spar still crossed the fuselage. This meant the attendants serving drinks had to climb over it to reach passengers at the front of the aircraft. In 1964 it made its final flight to Holland where it was purchased as scarp and converted into a roadside café near Soesterberg. It should have quietly rusted away there but in 1979 British Airways purchased it and brought it back to Cosford, where it sat until we rescued it, twelve years later. The first bit of the video deals with recovering it to Brooklands and once reassembled, moving it into the Wellington Hangar. The Valiant cockpit section had also to be moved to the Stratospheric Chamber to make room for it. The aircraft is on display at Brooklands along with its siblings the Wellington and the Varsity.

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