When de Havilland started thinking how it would respond to a 1956 British European Airways (BEA) requirement for a new short-haul jet, the UK's airliner manufacturing industry was the envy of Europe, if not the world. Sadly this was no longer the case by the time the last D.H.121 Trident was delivered, little more than 20 years later.rnDespite its technological excellence the Trident was an utter failure commercially, largely owing to the combination of a shortsighted customer who exerted too much influence on an insecure manufacturer, and a succession of governments lacking a true long-term vision for the aerospace industry. Although the Trident was a major contributor to the industry's demise, it deserves its place in airliner history as the pioneer of the tri-jet configuration and automatic-landing technology.
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