With Viscount 700 well launched by 1954 and Series 800 in hand, Vickers turned logically to a Viscount Major. Bristol's Orion was terminated, leaving Tyne as the sole UK big turboprop being schemed. TCA, happy Viscount user, showed interest in the dubble-bubble layout as a QC, pax upstairs daytime, freight below overnight. BEAC had no need for Richard Worcester to tell them that turbojets would be more expensive to operate than a turboprop, for little timetable benefit on short haul. The only civil-certified type had been Ghost; in 1955 Avon was coming on for BOAC Comet 4: the high cost of finite-life turbine discs might be recoverable over long haul, 2 cycles per day, but at 6 per day, the numbers could never work. So, Sud was out of their tree offering Avon/Caravelle I/III. With 20 Vanguards ordered by BEAC and 23 by TCA, Vickers, uniquely, did forego the UK Launch Aid deal (Treasury Loan repayable by Levy taking precedence over shareholders' profit) and funded it themselves.
But both Launch Customers were protected: CP, being commercially owned, had difficulty taking revenue from State-owned TCA; BEAC didn't suffer from the reciprocal carrier, such as AF to Paris, because all were State-owned, operating in Revenue Pools. So Vanguard could be "competitive" against Caravelle so long as passenger preference did not affect the cartel carve up of route revenue. But every other Viscount User except ANA+TAA had real, competitive routes, where jets mattered. Loss of Oz to Electra destroyed Vanguard's market credibility.