Vickers V - 1000 The Vickers - Armstrongs V - 1000 was a prototype jet - powered cargo aircraft designed to a UK Ministry of Supply requirement for a strategic transport to support the V bomber fleet . Both the Ministry and Vickers also intended to use the same basic design as the VC7 , a six - abreast trans - Atlantic jet airliner for BOAC . With the prototype largely complete , the Ministry of Supply cancelled the development contract in 1955 . By this time the design had garnered interest from the airlines , and led to re - designs in the competing US Boeing 707 and Douglas DC - 8 . The V - 1000 is one of the great " what - ifs " of British aviation , and its cancellation was the topic of considerable debate in the House of Commons . History . All of the manufacturers supplying designs for the V bombers considered airliner derivatives at one point or another . Perhaps the least innovative of these was the Vickers VC5 , which was essentially a slightly - stretched Vickers Valiant bomber with windows . It retained the Valiant ' s shoulder - mounted wing , which would have left many rows windowless , and also meant that it had long landing gear that BOAC considered unsuitable . Originally designed in the late 1940s , the VC5 attracted little interest and was dropped . New beginnings . In 1952 the UK Ministry of Supply ( MoS ) offered a contract for a jet - powered transport that would be able to support the V bomber fleet through cargo and crew freighting , as well as in - flight refuelling . There was an unstated criterion that the aircraft would also be adaptable as an airliner design for BOAC , then government - run . All of the V bomber entrants responded with designs . Handley Page offered the HP . 97 , which featured a two - level layout that moved the passenger seating above the wing of a design otherwise almost identical to the Handley Page Victor . BOAC rejected the design , which led to the more highly - modified HP . 111 , which was similar in layout but had a modern six - abreast single - deck fuselage . Avro started with their Vulcan design , keeping its tailless delta wing planform and mating it with a new fuselage , producing the Avro Atlantic ( Avro Type 722 ) . As the name implies , the design was specifically intended to offer trans - Atlantic range . Avro boasted that the delta wing offered good takeoff performance without the need for flaps or slats that conventional wings would require , while also offering a high cruising speed . Various versions were offered with 2 + 2 to 3 + 3 seating , with the added oddity that the seats faced to the rear of the aircraft . Vickers re - visited their VC5 and decided to modify it more heavily for the new requirements . A larger 12 ft 6 in ( 3 . 81 m ) fuselage was added with six - abreast seating for 131 passengers . The wings were moved to a low - mounted position , slotted flaps were added , and the wing was made considerably larger . Their new design won the MoS competition in March 1953 , and work started on a prototype , serial number " XD662 " , along with an order for six production versions . The VC7 was of some concern in the United States , where both Boeing and Douglas were in the process of designing their own jet transports to a very similar requirement from Strategic Air Command . Both companies had responded with designs sized for 2 + 3 seating ( the original 707 design was 2 + 2 ) , and had smaller passenger capabilities than the VC7 . Additionally , the VC7 ' s wing design offered a number of advanced features and increased wing area that greatly reduced take - off run and allowed it to operate from a wider selection of airports , while at the same time offering longer ranges . Finally , the VC7 was intending to use the Rolls - Royce Conway , the first production bypass engine , which further increased range and improved fuel economy . When these companies approached carriers with their plans , they found that they were constantly rejected as the VC7 was more interesting . Both companies started expensive re - design projects to compete , enlarging the fuselage to match the VC7 ' s 3 + 3 layout , and increasing the size and weights of the aircraft as a whole . When they were re - introduced to the markets in this larger form in 1955 , they fared considerably better , and after an initial order from Pan American Airways , orders started rolling in from around the world . The better range that the VC7 offered took longer to address , and at one point was solved by incorporating the Conway into those designs . Cancellation . In 1955 , BOAC started expressing concerns about the project , notably their reservations about the Conway engine all of the designs were based on . The Conway , the world ' s first turbofan , was still in development and was by no means a " sure thing " . Instead , BOAC claimed that they were perfectly happy with the Bristol Britannia for their trans - Atlantic routes , and would remain so until an enlarged de Havilland Comet 4 arrived in a few years . At the same time , the MoS was experiencing budget pressures , and wanted to move the budget assigned to the V - 1000 to other projects to avoid their cancellation . They also started to question the need to support the V bomber fleet at long distances , given the ever - shrinking Empire . Finally , they stated that Transport Command ' s needs for strategic airlift were immediate , and chose to purchase several Britannias of their own to fill this role . This coincided with political pressure to bolster employment in Northern Ireland , where much of the production of the de Havilland Comet 2 was to have been conducted under licence by Short Brothers . The Comet ' s cancellation had left Short ' s with a bleak future , and an order for Britannias , to be built in the same factory , was seen as providing a neat solution for all concerned . In the end , BOAC ' s decision would quickly be reversed when it became clear that their competitors were going to enter the jet age before them . The VC7 had been cancelled by this point , and a study demonstrated it would be too costly to restart the line . Instead , BOAC ordered the Boeing 707 in October 1956 , ironically in a special model to be powered by the Conway . Contrary to BOAC ' s worries , the Conway proved to have an almost flawless development cycle , and on several occasions outstripped the development of the models it was meant to power . Likewise , the attempt to save other military projects proved futile , and almost all ongoing projects were cancelled as part of the 1957 Defence White Paper . As had been pointed out at the time , the VC7 ' s performance from limited airfields was considerably better than that of the Boeing 707 , which required long runways and extensive ground support . This limited the BOAC 707s to high - volume routes between larger well - equipped airports in Europe and North America . BOAC was also under strong political pressure to offer jet service on a number of limited - capacity " Empire routes " that the Boeing could not service , and turned to Vickers for a solution . The result was the Vickers VC10 , with additional power and a smaller fuselage that dramatically improved " hot and high " performance . Although the VC10 was successful in this role , most of the airports for which it had been designed were soon improved sufficiently for the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC - 8 to be able to serve them comfortably after all . The VC10 lost its competitive edge , and sold only in limited numbers . Parliamentary debate . The cancellation led to a lengthy series of questions in the House that went on for weeks . John Peyton characterised it as " this disappointing and retrograde decision " . Deputy Leader of the Labour Party George Brown asked " does not this decision mean that the American companies , the Douglas and the Boeing , will , in effect , be so far ahead of us in the next development of the pure jet that we shall have 10 or 20 years to make up at some stage afterwards ? " , a prediction that proved astonishingly accurate . Air Commodore Arthur Vere Harvey expressed concerns of the industry in general , while William Robson Brown questioned the wisdom of cancelling at such a late date given that £2 . 3 million had been invested in the project . In response , the Minister of Supply , Reginald Maudling , noted that it was extremely unlikely that other airlines would order the VC7 , as " everyone concerned accepts that we cannot launch an aircraft of this category into the markets of the world unless we first have a home purchaser who will buy and operate it , which is not so in this case . " He declined to offer continued financial support to Vickers for the civilian model for this reason . He also claimed that development was lagging and weight had increased to offset performance . These later claims were attacked several weeks later in a lengthy statement by Paul Williams , who pointed out that weight had indeed increased , but Rolls - Royce had addressed this by increasing power to offset this effect . He also noted that the aircraft had a built - in margin of safety due to its larger wing . He described the entire issue as " one of the most disgraceful , most disheartening and most unfortunate decisions that has been taken in relation to the British aircraft industry in recent years . " Debate on the issue continued , and the V - 1000 continued to come up in debate as late as 1957 . Description . The V - 1000 was an all - metal jet - powered airliner of conventional layout , which in overall terms looked like a de Havilland Comet with a new fuselage or the Valiant . The fuselage section looks similar to any modern " narrow body " airliner , although the nose was a rounded ogive similar to the Comet ' s ( a design note also copied on the Sud Aviation Caravelle ) . Although it may have looked similar , the V - 1000 / VC7 was designed for a six - abreast layout , and thus had a much larger diameter than the Comet . The wing planform was largely that of the Valiant with engines embedded in the wing near the wing - root , which decreased drag but increased difficulty in maintenance and was later considered to increase the risk of fire . Later designs universally used podded - engines on pylons to address these concerns . The wing shared a number of design notes from the Vickers Valiant bomber . The tail surfaces were conventional , although the horizontal stabilizers had a pronounced dihedral to keep them clear of the jet exhaust . The aircraft was designed from the start to mount the Rolls - Royce Conway engine , the world ' s first turbofan . The in - wing mounting dramatically limited the amount of bypass air , however , to about 25 % . There are reports of a follow - on design , the V - 1001 , which would used under - wing podded engines instead . Some of the design notes of the VC7 would go on to influence the Vickers VC10 . In particular , the wing arrangement with the various high - lift devices proved useful in the " hot and high " roles the VC10 would later fill . Additionally , the VC10 was powered by the Conway , albeit in a higher - powered version with much greater bypass ratio .