Vickers Viking G-AGRW enjoyed a long, varied and successful operational career (beginning as XF640 with the Ministry of Supply), and served with several well-known airlines. On decommissioning, it was converted to a novelty restaurant along with two other Vikings at Soesterburg, Netherlands, and then served as a creche facility at a MacDonalds restaurant in Vienna, Austria. It currently stands forlorn and semi-derelict in the corner of an airfield in Austria, awaiting purchase, dismantling and transport back "home" to Blackbushe Airport, UK, where it "traded" for many of its flying years.

Well, the fantastic news is that the target level for this first phase of our appeal has been surpassed by a huge margin! This is due to a great new partnership, as the Blackbushe Heritage Trust CIO has been "adopted" by British Airways, receiving a massive donation of £20,000, and the beginning of another fund-raising appeal via BA, aimed at boosting that donation toward a higher target. The details of the continuity appeal can be found via our Facebook Groups and Page at the following weblinks:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/696644645033238/ ("Saving Vagabond")

https://www.facebook.com/groups/320940220054624/ ("BHT Volunteers...")

https://www.facebook.com/BlackbusheHeritageTrust (BHT Charity Page)

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

We thank you profusely for your generous donations to this fund-raising appeal, and we hope that you will continue to follow and support our project via the above links.

"Vagabond" will soon be home!

Charity No: 1198733

(Images from Dietmar Schreiber and the Ron Roberts Collection)