1957

Scottish Aviation Syndicate was formed in 1935 to run the airport at Prestwick, flying school and other services. Built the Prestwick Pioneer and Twin Pioneer. Acquired rights to build Beagle Bulldog and Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream.
Scottish Aviation was absorbed into British Aerospace in 1977.
The Twin Pioneer was designed for both civil and military applications, the Twin Pioneer was also one of the few postwar aircraft to feature a high wing and tailwheel undercarriage, while its triple vertical tail arrangement makes it easily recognisable.
Swissair only used a Twin Pioneer for a very short period of time; during three Months beginning January 1957 the aircraft was used to fly to high altitude airports in switzerland with short runways, flying to destinations such as Davos, Zermatt, St. Moritz and La-Chaux-de-Fonds. Although Swissair was pleased with the aircraft they did not order it after the testing period. However Switzerland bought one Twin Pioneer (HB-HOX) which was mainly used for fotographic flights over switzerland.

G-AOEO	Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer # 503	04.01.1957 04.04.1957	Only Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer in Swissair Colors. Due to the british registration it did not carry the swiss cross, but the swissair arrow instead on its tail. Shortly after flying with Swissair, the aircraft -still operated by the manufacturor- crashed 285 miles SSW of Tripoli (Libya), due to structure fatigue (!!) on december 7th, 1957. All six on board died.

• Overview Airliners.net
• History of the Twin Pioneer at Swissair (german)
• History of the Twin Pioneer

 Please make sure you read the disclaimer regarding copyrights etc.