TAA’s Prop-jet Dominance Pt1: Viscounts vs DC-6s

Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) had from its creation been the trendsetter in the Australian market, introducing Convair 240s which enabled it to survive its formative rocky years. It was no surprise then that it took an early interest in turboprops and in particular the new Vickers Viscount. In 1949 TAA personnel had visited the annual display and exhibition of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors and identified the Viscount as ‘considerably superior to anything else in its class’.

TAA Viscount 756Ds VH-TVL & VH-TVM

TAA’s competitor the private Australian National Airways (ANA) had also identified this and setup a provisional purchase order for ten aircraft for delivery in 1952. TAA would be made to wait until 1952 before it could order six Viscount 700s and twenty four Rolls-Royce Dart engines. In October 1952 the Civil Aviation Agreement Act was signed which sought to regulate the two major Australian airlines and ensure the survival of both through equal financing, access to government business, route sharing, timetable and fare alignment.

The act should have set up ANA to survive and thrive against TAA however the actions of ANA itself worked against this outcome. For reasons that remain unclear ANA didn’t order the Viscounts. Instead as late as 1953 it was looking at the Handley Page Hermes. The Hermes was far from a success and ANA was forced to drop its interest in August when its failings became clear. Instead ANA switched to the larger but still piston engined DC-6 and ordered four (two DC-6s and two DC-6Bs). The DC-6s would be available almost immediately (the DC-6Bs wouldn’t be ready until early 1955 however) and were more suitable for the long routes to Perth, but the Viscounts were clearly more modern and had a superior cost per seat mile.

Therefore despite the government’s attempt to create parity between the two airlines ANA had thrown the doors of competition wide open by buying the DC-6s. For the nine months until TAA’s Viscounts arrived they would have a competitive advantage, but after that point the Viscount would be clearly superior, plus ANA would still have to service the debts it had accrued between 1949-53 and added to with the DC-6 acquisition.

October 13, 1954 was the day that TAA’s first Viscount VH-TVA ‘John Batman’ arrived at Melbourne. Pilot training began four days later and the first fare paying service was flown on October 21 with regular scheduled services due to start in November. Sadly VH-TVA wasn’t to be able to operate these services as on October 31 disaster struck and the new aircraft crashed on a training flight whilst undergoing engine stop/gos. The aircraft wasn’t blamed and neither were the three deceased pilots instead the coroner’s inquiry gave a verdict of misadventure. Fortunately, the remainder of the Viscount order arrived from December 4 to late February and scheduled services began on December 18 between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The Viscounts were much needed as ANA’s DC-6s had up till then established a clear lead. Four of the Viscounts were used on east coast routes and the fifth was designated to the Perth route. On the east coast routes the Viscounts were clearly superior and provided greater frequency. To the west coast the DC-6 was better having been designed specifically for longer routes. The Viscounts proved their worth with an excellent response from the public which provided an average load factor of 89.5% in the first six weeks. ​ Things got better when the last Viscount VH-TVF came equipped with newer Dart 506. TVF also gained additional wing fuel tanks making the Viscount more suitable for the long Perth route. In addition the 506 had increased power and decreased fuel consumption enabling a speed increase from 306 to 321 miles per hour.

By the end of January 1956 TAA had in its fleet 6 Viscount 720s with 6 Viscount 756Ds yet to arrive. As the TAA Viscounts matured into service they gained ground on ANA’s DC-6s and Australian National’s problems grew. In part 2 we’ll look at how the TAA/ANA struggle played out and the impact Ansett had on Viscount operations in Australia.