BOAC Boeing 707 Speedbird

In the early 1950s, Britain and America were competing to seize the initiative in the upcoming Jet Age, and manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic were developing fast, long-range jetliners.  On the British side, De Havilland got into commercial service first with the Comet, while Vickers-Armstrong offered the prototype V-1000/VC7.  On the American side, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 had to be redesigned to outdo the British designs.  However, the De Havilland Comet was grounded in 1954 after two aircraft disintegrated in flight, and the British government cancelled the V-1000/VC7 contract in 1955.  Vickers-Armstrong managing director George Edwards complained "We have handed to the Americans, without a struggle, the entire world market for big jet airliners."

Mr. Edwards predicted correctly, as the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), which handled non-European international flights, bought the Boeing 707.  In BOAC service, it was powered by Rolls-Royce Conway turbofan jet engines, which would have gone on the cancelled Vickers plane.  Vickers was compensated somewhat by an order for the VC10 jetliner, but it was quite clear that America was now leading the world into the Jet Age.  This model of a BOAC 707 in 1960s "Speedbird" livery was on display at the Shizuoka Hobby Show.  In 1974, the British government combined BOAC and British European Airways (BEA) to create British Airways, which still uses the BOAC Speedbird identity and is Boeing's largest customer outside the United States.