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,
Vickers Aircraft Company Vickers Aircraft Company Vickers Aircraft Company is a small aircraft manufacturer in Hamilton, New Zealand. Vickers Aircraft Company is developing the Vickers Wave, a two-seat amphibious seaplane. Vickers Aircraft Company was founded in 2011. Previous to being Vickers Aircraft Company, it had been a custom manufacturer of marine and aviation products, operating as Specialized Routing. Vickers Aircraft specialises in carbon fibre fabrication, and in-house manufacturing of their goods. Special attention is being made to make an aircraft that is producible and highly manufacturable. The first public forum discussing the Wave was presented at EAA Airventure 2017. Vickers Aircraft Company's first