page_title: New Zealand National Airways Corporation
section_title: Vickers Viscount 807
hierarchical_section_title: New Zealand National Airways Corporation / Fleet history / Piston power / Vickers Viscount 807
caption_attribution_description: English: NZ National Airways Corporation Vickers 807 Viscount ZK-BRD at Wellington Airport in 1971.
context_page_description: New Zealand National Airways Corporation, popularly known as NAC, was the national domestic airline of New Zealand from 1947 until 1978 when it amalgamated with New Zealand's international airline, Air New Zealand. The airline was headquartered in Wellington.
  NAC was itself a government-led amalgamation of RNZAF 40 Transport Squadron, Union Airways and a number of other smaller operators, including the country's first commercial air service Air Travel Ltd. At the time of its inception, it was equipped with de Havilland Dragon Rapides, de Havilland Fox Moths, Douglas DC-3s, Lockheed Electras, Lockheed Lodestars, and one de Havilland Express which latter was returned to the RNZAF before the official 1947 inaugural start date.
  Although chiefly a domestic airline, in late 1947 NAC also provided international services to some nearby South Pacific countries, using converted ex-Royal New Zealand Air Force Short Sunderland IIIs, as well as long-range Douglas DC-3Ds to Fiji via Norfolk Island.
  By the time of the merger with Air New Zealand, the fleet consisted of 25 aircraft comprising Boeing 737s and Fokker F27s.
context_section_description: The pioneering turbo-prop powered Vickers Viscount first appeared in New Zealand in 1953 when an early model -700 was flown out for the London to Christchurch Air Race. In 1954, after the New Zealand Government encouraged the development of nationwide airports and with the promise of Wellington Airport being completed in 1958, NAC ordered four of the new larger 800 series type.
  The Vickers Viscount 807s were introduced from 1958, three initially being purchased. The first was used as a training aircraft and operated alone for a year on the Christchurch-Auckland route, and to Palmerston North which substituted for a still uncompleted Wellington International Airport. Services to Wellington began the following year, after the major reconstruction of Wellington's Rongotai Airport was completed a year later, two more Viscounts had joined the first by then. Services to Dunedin began late in 1962 with the purchase of the fourth aircraft in 1960, after the closure of Taieri Aerodrome to airliners and the opening of the larger Momona Airport further down the Taieri Plain.
  The famous 'Viscount Jump' effect saw passenger numbers swell. Powered by four Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops, the Viscount was two generations ahead of the DC-3. In 1966 NAC bought a second-hand aircraft, modifying it to 807 standards, bringing the fleet to five. This opened up Viscount services to Hamilton and Invercargill.
  The Vickers Viscount continued on until the last was withdrawn in 1975 when the '807' type had started to develop wing spar fatigue. The end of the Viscount era also realised NAC's wishes to operate a two aircraft type fleet. Two extra Boeing 737-200s were purchased as replacements (see below).
  It would be another twenty years before the Viscount's natural successor, the ATR 72-200, would take over the major provincial services.
caption: NAC Vickers Viscount 807 at Wellington Airport in 1971
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