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ANG026 - Edition 2,000
1:43 Scale
BOAC
During the 1950s and 1960s, BOAC shifted to a largely Boeing-made fleet, starting with a 1956 order for 15 Boeing 707s. Sir Giles Guthrie, who took charge of BOAC in 1964, preferred the Boeing aircraft for economic reasons, and indeed BOAC began turning a profit in the late 1960s. The preference for US-made aircraft caused a political row in Parliament, however, and the government ordered BOAC to purchase 17 Vickers VC-10 aircraft from a 30-aircraft order which Guthrie had cancelled. However the VC-10 had somewhat higher operating costs than the 707, largely as a result of BOAC's own demands for the aircraft to have excellent "hot and high" performance.BOAC later became the largest Boeing customer outside North America. The next major order of Boeing aircraft was for 11 747-100s. BOAC received its first 747 on April 22, 1970 but due to strike action by the British Air Line Pilots Association the aircraft did not enter commercial service for almost a year, on April 14, 1971.
On September 1, 1972, the British Airways Board was formed, a holding board that controlled BOAC and BEA. On March 31, 1974, both the BOAC and BEA were dissolved and their operations merged to form British Airways.
