History of Cubana de Aviación of its fleet, opting to replace its long-range piston-prop Super Constellations with turboprop aircraft, and to expand its existing Vickers Viscount turboprop fleet in the immediate future. Cubana placed orders for four long-range Bristol Britannia (Model 318) and four Vickers Super Viscount (VV-818) aircraft, all turboprops, for its international services (which included Madrid, New York, Mexico City, Miami, Montego Bay, Nassau, Port-au-Prince), and for some of its domestic routes (Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Varadero). The first Bristol Britannia (CU-T668) was delivered in late 1958, and was placed in service in the airline's New York route. The new Britannias and Super
Vickers Viscount a post-war small medium-range pressurised aircraft to fly less-travelled routes, carrying 24 passengers up to 1,750 mi (2,816 km) at 200 mph (320 km/h). During discussions between the committee and Vickers' chief designer, Rex Pierson, Vickers advocated turboprop power. The committee was not convinced and split the specification into two types, the Type IIA using piston power, which led to the Airspeed Ambassador, and the turboprop-powered Type IIB which Vickers was selected to develop in April 1945. British European Airways (BEA) was involved in the design and asked that the aircraft carry 32 passengers instead, but remained otherwise similar. The