Basil Smallpeice
Sir Basil Smallpeice,  (18 September 1906 – 12 July 1992) was an English accountant and businessman, who served as a director of several companies, including the state owned airline British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), the shipping company Cunard and the mining based conglomerate Lonrho. Smallpeice, as financial comptroller and later, managing director, was one of the board of BOAC who was instrumental in purchasing and introducing jet powered aircraft into passenger service. He was responsible for the purchase of the de Havilland Comet, the Boeing 707 and the Vickers VC10. His time at BOAC included the introduction of the Comet 1, the subsequent Comet disasters where metal fatigue caused the in-flight destruction of three aircraft, with a loss of 99 passengers and crew, the re-introduction of the Comet 4 and the inauguration of the first jet-powered transatlantic services in October 1958. He would later be instrumental in the purchase of the Boeing 707, which introduced the first by-pass turbofan engine, the Rolls-Royce Conway into passenger service.