Britain Surrenders - The Vickers VC7 and V-1000 Story

Greetings all! :D

In 1950, Britain was by far the most innovative nation in the aviation industry when it came to commercial airliners, the De Havilland Comet and the Vickers Viscount setting new bars in technology that the rest of the world would spend the remainder of the decade working to match.

Following the glowing success of the Viscount, and the exceptional performance of the Comet on long-distance flights, the UK was set to continue this commanding trend by way of the Vickers VC7, and its military counterpart the V-1000, aircraft of such excellent structural and mechanical design that its American rivals Boeing and Douglas were forced to rework their own concepts, the 707 and DC-8, in order to keep up with Britain's trailblazing airliner.

Then, in November 1956, priorities changed and both airliners were cancelled as the first prototype neared completion and was only months away from its maiden flight, the short-term political imperatives of the mid-1950s, giving rise to major long-term problems for the remainder of the century, with the disposal of the VC7 and V-1000 essentially being the UK handing all future leadership of commercial aviation to the United States, and setting the tone for Britain's downward spiral in civil aircraft endeavours.

Chapters:

0:00 - Preamble
1:18 - Britain Leads the World
3:34 - Meeting a New Challenge
6:03 - Setting out Specifications
9:06 - The Prototype Takes Shape
12:32 - A Scare in the States
14:38 - Holes Begin to Appear
16:42 - An Undignified End
19:34 - Immediate Regret
23:32 - The Downward Spiral
27:08 - Conclusion

All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated YouTubers. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.

If you enjoyed this video, why not leave a like, and consider subscribing for more great content coming soon.

Paypal: https://paypal.me/rorymacve?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/rorymacve

Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D

References:
- Royal Aeronautical Society (and their respective references)
- Key Aero (and their respective references)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)