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,
Regional airliner and British Aerospace ended production of their BAe Jetstream 41 after 100 delivered. By 2006 only the ATR 42/72 models and the Dash 8 remained in production. Turboprop airliner deliveries are correlated with oil prices with a lag of a few years. Another reason for the downturn in the turboprop market was the introduction of the first regional jets. Although a number of small jets entered service in the 1950s and 60s, notably the Sud Aviation Caravelle, Fokker F28 Fellowship and DC-9, these could not compete in terms of cost of operation with the turboprop designs, and were suitable for