VH-EQP  Vickers 836 Viscount                              (c/n  435)

                                   

                                           In August-September 1959 Vickers completed two Viscounts for Trans Australia Airlines
                                           whose option was not taken up. (The airline, at that time, was about to receive its Lockheed
                                           L188 Electras).  These Viscounts were VH-TVR and VH-TVS.  Both machines led long and
                                           convoluted careers, whose paths crossed in 1964.  C/n 435 was the one which was to have
                                           become VH-TVR but was instead converted to a model 835 and sold to Union Carbide and
                                           Carbon Corporation as N40N.   In August 1954 it, along with c/n 436 (by then flying with
                                           Iran National Airlines) was acquired by the Royal Australian Air Force and given the serial
                                           A6-435.  (The other was A6-436).  Both were assigned to 34 Squadron as VIP transports.
                                           In 1969 they were retired and stored.   In September 1970 A6-435 was sold to Jesp Invest-
                                           ments Pty Ltd and became VH-EQP, as seen above in this shot by Peter Kelly (via Geoff
                                           Goodall), taken at Bankstown prior to being ferried to the USA for resale, and still with rough-
                                           ed out RAAF titling and roundels. (At one stage it was to have gone to Jet Airlines of Australia
                                           but the deal did not go through).     In June of 1971 it wound up with the Sultan of Oman's Air
                                           Force.  Its history beyond that is of no Australian civil aviation history relevance but full details
                                           of its many and varied identities and adventures can be found at:
                                                                    http://www.aussieairliners.org/viscount/a6-435/a6435.html