N141 - Vickers Viking, Valetta & Varsity

By Adrian M Balch 

The Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. After the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines, pending the development of turboprop aircraft like the Viscount. The Valetta was a military derivative of the Viking developed in transport and training variants for the Royal Air Force, while the Varsity was a versatile twin piston-engined aircraft developed from the Viking and Valetta but with a tricycle undercarriage and ventral pannier for bomb-aimer training, among other changes. It was brought into RAF service in 1951 for crew training as a replacement for the Wellington T.10.

This Warpaint relates the history of all three types, focussing on the military operators, as per the series title. It is profusely illustrated by 125 top quality photographs, nearly all in colour, from the author's extensive photograph archive and supported by excellent colour profiles and plans by Sam Pearson.