BASIC BUILD
Ethan Williams builds the Vintage Classics release of Airfix’s 1/144 Trident 1C in classy BEA livery as worn in the 1950s-60s.
Hawker-Siddeley’s Trident was a tri-jet airliner developed originally by de Havilland as the DH.121. It was envisaged as the world’s first airliner to have this configuration, not least due to British European Airways (BEA) ‘more than two engines’ specification, and flew 13 months prior to its main rival, the Boeing 727. Despite this, the latter was accepted into service two months before the Trident’s April 1964 initial flights with BEA. Boeing’s early lead with the 727 meant it gained more traction commercially over the Trident, with just 117 examples of the British airliner built... compared to more than 1,800 727s.
