The Labour Government of 1968 made BEA buy a mix of Trident 3Bs and BAC-111 Srs500s with a subsidy instead of the 727/737 mix BEA wanted
Is the Mercure F-BTMD still around?...Perhaps the most interesting one...was built as a shorter pre-production airframe, flew in the Paris air Show, 1975....was the only Mercure to cross the Atlantic on a visit to Douglas at Long Beach, re a possible co-production deal...was stored then stretched slightly and completed as a Mercure 100 for delivery to Air Inter (its eleventh Mercure)