Crowdfunder Update -March 23 'Vagabond' to return to Blackbushe in May 2023

Since our announcement on the 15th January 2023 that we will be returning Vickers Viking G-AGRW ‘Vagabond’ back to Blackbushe Airport much work has been going on behind the scenes including technical visits to Bad Vöslau Airport in Austria where the aircraft is located.

G-AGRW “Vagabond” currently at Bad Vöslau Airport in Austria.

Once ‘Vagabond’ has returned to Blackbushe the aircraft will become the centrepiece of a museum outlining the history of Blackbushe Airport including Viking operations that took place there in the 1950s. The exciting news is that we can announce that a working party will arrive at Bad Vöslau on the 21st April to commence the dismantling process of ‘Vagabond’ and the plan is to load the aircraft on to three trucks and embark on the journey back to Blackbushe a week later with a planned arrival time in the UK in early May.

The Blackbushe Air Day is on the 3rd June 2023 and we will do all possible to have the Viking in attendance along with a stand for the Blackbushe Heritage Trust.

We are aware that the return of ‘Vagabond’ was only made possible due to the support of British Airways & British Airways colleague donations through the BA Better World Community Fund as well as the generous donations made by many of you via Crowdfunder and donations direct to the Blackbushe Heritage Trust. We thank you all for the donations that you have made. We also thank Blackbushe Airport for giving the Viking a new home and RPM aviation for providing transportation and logistics to get ‘Vagabond’ home and, of course, our volunteers who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the project going.

We very much hope you can come and visit ‘Vagabond’ at Blackbushe and enjoy the wonderful atmosphere at the airport and visualise passenger operations at the airport in the 1950s.

It is worth noting that G-AGRW has a special relationship with BA and Blackbushe as it was delivered to British European Airways in April 1946 at Northolt and named ‘Vagabond’ and then went on to operate with several independent operators including being leased to Airwork and operated by Hunting Clan. Airwork and Hunting Clan are examples of many British independent Viking operators at Blackbushe and, of course, these two airlines went on to become British United Airways (BUA). BUA went on to become British Caledonian which merged into British Airways!

Many of the Vikings that were sold from BEA were delivered to Eagle Airways at Blackbushe and Eagle adopted the same colour scheme – see pictures below of G-AMGI in BEA colours at Northolt and virtually identical colours of G-AIVH on the ramp at Blackbushe in front of the historic passenger terminal, part of which, still remains today. Our plan to is to have G-AGRW in the colours depicted below with BEA ‘Vagabond’ colours on one side and Eagle Airways the other. 

We will update you in April once we are nearer to the departure time at Bad Voslau and the imminent arrival of ‘Vagabond’ to the UK.

If you would like to donate you can do so via our crowdfunder page here:

https://www.bacommunityfund.co.uk/p/the-return-of-vagabond

All donations are very much appreciated, thank you for your support.