Routine Flight the TCA purchase of the British-built Vickers Viscount turboprop-powered airliner, the Winnipeg base is also in the midst of introducing jet engine technology for its engineering staff and technicians. TCA is the first North American carrier to use turboprop aircraft and air crews are also working up procedures to introduce the new airliner. The first Viscount is carrying out orientation flights for ground and air crews and the "On the Spot" crew are invited to come aboard on a test flight. The "On The Spot" series debuted in 1953, with the 39 episodes, initially 15 minutes in length. For the
Vickers Viscount the Vickers Vanguard. The Vanguard drew extensively from the knowledge and design of the Viscount, and likewise maintained its advantage of lower operating costs over pure jet-powered aircraft, but its disadvantage in being slower than jet aircraft became increasingly critical as jets became more available over time. Regular passenger flights were launched by BEA in 18 April 1953, the world's first scheduled turboprop airline service. BEA became a large user of the Viscount, as well the rival Handley Page Dart Herald; by mid-1958 BEA's Viscount fleet had carried over 2.75 million passengers over 200,000 flight hours. Following BEA's launch of