Blank Greeting and Birthday card featuring British Eagle Airways Vickers Viscount and BOAC Vickers VC-10

The period between 1955 and 1970 saw air travel come of age in Europe and here we see two very different companies that perfectly show the approaches taken at the time.

Up to this point there had been only limited competition to the state-owned airlines but when British Eagle came of age in the mid-1950s all that changed. By gradually improving its fleet of aircraft, the company found itself in a good position by 1960, so much so that it had acquired some very nice airliners such as the Vickers Viscount and later Britannias and towards the end of its life Boeing 707s. In many ways Eagle was the pioneer for later budget airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair

BOAC had very few ways of competing with the prices being charge by Eagle but had some terrific aircraft, such as the VC-10. Though not a commercial success, the VC-10 remains the fastest non-supersonic aircraft to cross the Atlantic and has a large following of loyal fans.

Trevor Mitchell shows a typical scene with an Eagle liveried Mini van and the ever cheerful Air Hostess showing the way.