Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Colombian airline, LANSA. Until TACA de Venezuela was completely absorbed by LAV in 1958, the route to Bogotá was flown using TACA aircraft in TACA livery. During the 1950s, LAV opened a transatlantic service and began flying to Panama (in 1953). The Constellation fleet was upgraded to L-1049G Super Constellations. An order for the first jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, was placed, but with the Comet crashes of the 1950s, the airline never got their Comet jets. On 24 March 1956, LAV introduced its first turboprop, a Vickers Viscount 701 which was to replace the older piston engined
Vickers Valiant military aircraft. It was followed by the Vanguard, a passenger turboprop designed in 1959, and the Vickers VC10, a jet passenger aircraft in 1962, also used as a military transport and tanker by the RAF. The Valiant was a conservative design of the era, having a shoulder-mounted wing and four Rolls-Royce Avon RA.3 turbojet engines, each providing up to of thrust, installed in pairs in fireproof bays in each wing root. The design of the Valiant gave an overall impression of a plain and clean aircraft with simple aerodynamics. George Edwards described the Valiant appropriately and simply as an "unfunny"