Vickers Viscount refurbished and saw new service with African operators; sales of these second-hand aircraft continued into the 1990s. It is believed that the last airworthy Viscount, 9Q-COD, last flew in January 2009 for Global Airways in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. See "List of accidents and incidents involving the Vickers Viscount". Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Viscount was well received by the public for its cabin conditions, which included
Three-surface aircraft canard foreplanes flew in 1985 and derivatives of this design became the only military types to enter production. Also in 1979, Piaggio began design studies on a three-surface civil twin turboprop which, in collaboration with Learjet, would emerge as the Piaggio P.180 Avanti. This type first flew in 1986 and entered service in 1990, with production continuing today. In the Avanti, the three-surface configuration is claimed to significantly reduce wing size, weight and drag compared to the conventional equivalent. Two experimental aircraft adopting this configuration were subsequently built by Scaled Composites under the lead of Burt Rutan and flown in