Vickers V-1000 the world's first jet-powered commercial transport aircraft, the Vickers Viscount, the world's first turboprop-powered commercial airliner, and the Bristol Britannia, a turboprop-powered aircraft capable of conducting routine transatlantic flights; all of these designs had their origins in the specifications laid out by the wartime Brabazon Committee. With these aircraft, Britain appeared to be on track to capturing a large slice of the global demand for civil aircraft for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had been pursuing development of a new generation of strategic bombers, these being the Vickers Valiant, the Avro Vulcan, and the Handley Page
Vickers hardness test the material. The fin attachment pins and sleeves in the Convair 580 airliner were specified by the aircraft manufacturer to be hardened to a Vickers Hardness specification of 390HV5, the '5' meaning five kiloponds. However, on the aircraft flying Partnair Flight 394 the pins were later found to have been replaced with sub-standard parts, leading to rapid wear and finally loss of the aircraft. On examination, accident investigators found that the sub-standard pins had a hardness value of only some 200-230HV5. Vickers hardness test The Vickers hardness test was developed in 1921 by Robert L. Smith and George E. Sandland