Twistedenginestarter,
I'll disagree with your theory about national jealousy's, American, Braniff, and Mohawk flew 1-11's United flew Caravelles as well. I've seen comparisons between the DC-9 and 1-11's and Caravelle's and the operating economics were much better in the DC-9's case. Obviously having the opportunity to assess the competition was to the US builders advantage. The problem I see was that the English designs were tailored to the narrow specs of BEA BA etc and they suffered for it in the marketplace. So what was the cause of the VC-10's limited sales sucess, since Vickers could out-design the 707 and DC-8 with a newer, better design. I know she is a beautiful jet, saw many RAF models during the Gulf War.