A fantastic new book, British Aviation: The First Half-Century contains 170 fabulously colourised images of pre-1950 British aircraft. Here's a selection of some known and some less well-known civil aircraft from the golden age of British aviation.
VICKERS VIKING
Vickers created the Viking civil transport by mating a new fuselage to the wings of the Wellington bomber. The aircraft proved popular with airlines in the year immediately following World War Two and a small number were also acquired for the RAF. A contract for 45 for the RAF was placed in October 1945, but the order was subsequently modified to cover two Viking C.1s and 10 C.2s, and a prototype and 21 production Valetta C.1s (the military derivative of the airliner), while the other 11 were cancelled.
