Rolls-Royce Dart Rolls-Royce Dart The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a long-lived British turboprop engine designed, built and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Limited. First run in 1946, it powered the first Vickers Viscount maiden flight in 1948, and in the Viscount was the first turboprop engine to enter airline service, with British European Airways (BEA), in 1950. On 29 July 1948 a flight between Northolt and Paris–Le Bourget Airport with 14 paying passengers in a Dart-powered Viscount was the first scheduled airline flight by any turbine-powered aircraft. The Dart was still in production when the last Fokker F27 Friendships and Hawker Siddeley HS 748s
1953 Nutts Corner BEA Vickers Viking accident 1953 Nutts Corner BEA Vickers Viking accident On 5 January 1953, a Vickers Viking airliner operated by British European Airways crashed on approach to Belfast Nutts Corner Airport, Northern Ireland. The aircraft was on a domestic flight from London Northolt Airport with 31 passengers and 4 crew on board. Twenty-four of the passengers and three crew members died in the accident. The Vickers Type 610 Viking 1B airliner, powered by two Bristol Hercules 634 14-cylinder radial engines, was registered G-AJDL with manufacturer's serial number 262. It was delivered to British European Airways in March 1949. Originally named "Vortex" by the