Pre production Vickers Vanguard customer livery models

[Henry Tenby]

I recently came across these two 8X10 black and white publicity photos released by Vickers in the late 1950s depicting the Vickers Vanguard in Trans Canada Air Lines livery and British European Airways livery.

What I find very interesting about both photos, is the livery depicted for each airline from the 1950s was revised by the time the actual Vanguard airframes were delivered to the respective airlines in the early 1960s.

In the case of Trans Canada Air Lines, the photos depicts an all bare metal fuselage, which was probably circa mid 1950s as the Connies were delivered in this scheme. By the time the Vanguards were delivered starting in 1961, TCA had adopted a white crown.

And as for British European Airways, by the time their first Vanguards were delivered in the early 1960s, the red square and black cheatline livery had been adopted.

In collecting airline display models, it is always interesting to collect models that were produced by the builders pre delivery, as in some cases the airline liveries become outdated rather quickly. And the models with the never delivered colour schemes become quite rare and highly collectible.