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P. 38
higher operating cost over the
Hawker Siddeley Trident
707, the aircraft’s rear mounted
engines meant it was quieter
than its US rivals and thus it
achieved significantly higher
load factors. BOAC, later British
Airways, ran a very effective
advertising campaign plugging
the VC-10’s “hush power.”
From the same stable
the twin-jet BAC
1-11 (British Aircraft
Corporation) achieved
impediment was the long delay modest success with
in getting the design configura- 244 sold with 80
tion agreed. operators across the
Sadly only 115 of the Tridents globe the largest being
were built while its competitor American Airlines
the Boeing 727 sold over 1,800. with 30. While the type did
However, the Trident was also not initially suffer from
technically a superb aircraft procrastination of BEA, one of
with its sophisticated and Vickers VC-10 its key customers, the airline
comprehensive avionics suite. did delay the biggest variant the
This included a completely auto- unquestionably the most beau- -500 by over a year, thus harm-
matic landing system developed tiful airliner ever built. The ing international sales. Originally
by Hawker Siddeley and Smiths requirement was for an the 1-11 was from the Hunting
Aircraft Instruments which intercontinental jet that could Aircraft stable but that company
enabled the first fully automatic operate from hot, high and short was part of industry consolida-
landings by 1965. The Trident airfields as the jet era unfolded. tion and became part of British
was the first airliner fitted with a However, with the great success Aircraft Corporation along with
quick access flight data recorder of the 707 and DC-8 airport Vickers in 1960.
with 64 variables. operators lengthened their short
runways to ensure they did not The BAC 1-11 first flew in August
The largest commer- miss out of the jet-set. 1963 and entered service with
cial airliner built in the British United Airways in January
United Kingdom that While this negated the need 1965 and production ceased in
the UK in 1982 and in Romania
for the VC-10s short-field
entered service was the performance, which came at a in 1989 where nine were built.
Vickers VC-10 but again
meddling by the types BAC 1-11
largest customer BOAC
created uncertainty
with other airlines and
only 54 were built.
The four-engine VC-10, with its
striking T-Tail, four tail mounted
engines and huge wing, was
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