Business: V for Victory

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In a corner of Hurn Airport, near Britain's south coast, stand six black-painted hangars belonging to Vickers Ltd. Inside are planes abuilding that pose the biggest threat to U.S. domination of the world's transport airlanes. The planes are Vickers Viscounts, 48 place, 320-m.p.h. airliners with four turboprop engines. A fortnight ago the first Viscount of a 22-plane order for Trans-Canada Airlines flew across the Atlantic to Montreal. Last week another new turboprop took off for the other end of the world, one of a six-plane order for Trans-Australia Airlines which the company finds ideal for its needs.

In the hangars, three more Viscounts are nearing completion, the first of a Go-plane, $67 million order for Capital Airlines, the first U.S. airline to switch from piston to turbine power and the first in history to buy anything but U.S. planes. With American Airlines, biggest U.S. line, shopping around for replacements for its 77-plane fleet of two-engine Convairs, U.S. planemakers will have to scramble to keep Vickers from making an even bigger dent in the short-haul airliner market. All told, the world's airlines have ordered 177 Viscounts, and many of the new planes will replace American equipment.

Viscounts in Vickerland. To Britons, Vickers' new Viscount is soothing balm after the blows to their prestige from the De Havilland Comet crashes. British aviation experts make the point that wherever Viscounts have flown on trunk (under 1,000 mile) routes, the turboprop planes have proved tough competition for piston-engined U.S. transports. Their four 1,400-h.p. Rolls Royce jet engines, hooked to propellers, not only make them about 35 m.p.h. faster than competing Convairs, but also much quieter and smoother riding. (British European Airways passenger traffic has gone up about 26% since switching to Viscounts from DC-35 and Vikings.) Instead of expensive high-octane gas, they fly on cheap kerosene, are easier to operate and maintain since the engines have fewer moving parts. At only 30% of capacity, say Vickers, the Viscount can cover operating costs. Vickers has also learned the trick of U.S.-type maintenance; it has already arranged for special parts depots in Winnipeg, Man. and Alexandria, Va. for maintenance of Trans-Canada's and Capital's new Viscounts.

The Viscount is Britain's greatest single commercial victory of the postwar years, but it is only a tiny fraction of Vickers' mighty empire, sprawling over 17 separate divisions. Vickers has 80,000 workers, assets of nearly $400 million; last year its profits hit $20 million on an array of products from aircraft to yzarine (a type of suede cloth for shoes).