Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Paper ended most military manned-aircraft development in the UK, and Avro decided to re-enter the civilian market. The Vickers Viscount had the larger end of the short-haul market, and Avro therefore decided to design a smaller regional airliner powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines, intended to replace the many DC-3 Dakotas that were by then reaching the end of their economic lifespan. Original plans were for a 20–30 seat aircraft with a similar configuration to the Fokker F27, but talks with potential customers soon led to a low-wing 40-seat design being chosen for the 748 project. Avro was not
Joan Vickers, Baroness Vickers on 25 March 1904 and became one of their partners at their office at 4 Moorgate Street. At the end of the First World War, all the German stockbrokers were forced to resign. In 1917 he set up his own firm, Vickers, da Costa, which counted Sir Winston Churchill among their clients. Her brother, Ralph Vickers was later Senior Partner of the firm. Vickers was educated at St Monica's, Burgh Heath, Surrey, and in Paris. She was trained as a Norland Nurse, working in the Margaret Macdonald and Mary Middleton Hospital, Notting Hill and was active in politics in Battersea