I think it would have been even more prudent to have bought an engine-carrying aircraft that actually worked !
I guess Court got the idea of the Beverley from TWA. They had a Fairchild C-82 Packet, another ex-military type that was really unknown in the civil world, wich was based in Paris and turned up at various European points with spare engines and engineers as required and would doubtless have many spotters (or new FO's) saying "whatever type is that". But the TWA operation across Europe was on a completely different scale.
Did anyone ever propose painting the Beverley pink ?