Hawker Siddeley Trident 1978, 117 Tridents had been produced. BEA's successor British Airways withdrew its Tridents by the mid-1980s. Trident services ended in China in the early 1990s. In 1953, as British European Airways (BEA) introduced the world's first turboprop-powered civil airliner – the Vickers Viscount – into passenger service, the operator was already considering what would be required of a potential successor. Following the entry into service of jet airliners in 1952, many airline managers and economists remained sceptical and advocated turboprop airliners as replacements of piston-engined airliners. In 1953, while several manufacturers across the world were investing in pure jet-powered aircraft,
Canadian Vickers Vigil Canadian Vickers Vigil The Canadian Vickers Vigil was a single-seat patrol aircraft designed to meet a Royal Canadian Air Force requirement for a forest fire patrol aircraft. In 1926, the RCAF issued specifications for an aircraft to replace the Airco DH.4 aircraft used at the time. Canadian Vickers designed the Vigil which had steel-structured wings with aluminum skin throughout, and was a strut-braced sesquiplane. The aircraft was overweight, which impacted the aircraft service ceiling and performance, which in turn made it unsuitable for its role. Only one was ever built. Unfit for its intended role, the aircraft was sent to