Vickers VC10

Production and order problems

Vickers revamped its production plans to try to achieve break-even point with 35 sales at £1.5 million each, re-using jigs from the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].
On 14 January 1958 BOAC increased its order to 35, with options for a further 20 aircraft,^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} all with smaller 109-seat interiors and more first-class seating so, as orders from BOAC alone now allowed break-even, the use of the Vanguard jigs was abandoned and new production jigs made.

BOAC had calculated that the Boeing 707 cost £4.10 per passenger-mile while the VC10 would cost £4.24.

This information was leaked, reputedly with the loss of several foreign orders.


The difference brought calls to cancel the order in favour of the 707.

The VC10 was rescued by the British government and in order to offer more economy Vickers began work on the Super 200 development of the VC10 with more powerful Conway engines and a 28 feet (8.1 m) longer fuselage offering up to 212 seats, 23 more than the Boeing 707-320 series.

By January 1960 Vickers was experiencing financial difficulties and was concerned that it would not be able to deliver the 35 VC10s without making a loss.

It offered to sell ten Super 200s to BOAC at £2.7 million each only to find that BOAC was unconvinced it had a role for the already ordered 35 VC10s and doubted the airline's ability to fill all 200 seats.

The government intervened again on Vickers' behalf with an order for Super 200s, placed on 23 June 1960.

The Super 200 extension was cut down to 13 ft (3.9 m) for the final Super VC10 (Type 1150), the original design retrospectively becoming the Standard VC10 (Type 1100).

As allowed in its contracts with Vickers, in May 1961 BOAC amended its order to 15 Standard and 35 Super VC10s, eight of the Supers having a new [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] configuration with a large cargo door and stronger floor: in December the order was reduced again to 12 Standards.

By the time deliveries were ready to begin in 1964 airline growth had slowed and BOAC wanted to cut its order to seven Supers.


In May the government intervened, placing an order for VC10s to operate as military transports to absorb over-production.

This lengthy, well-publicised trouble did much to erode market confidence in the type.


BOAC chairman [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and managing director [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] resigned, defending the opinion that the national airline was a profit-making company, not a sponsor of indigenous aircraft designs (Smallpeice was later an ardent supporter of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] premiership).

BOAC's incoming chairman Sir [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was also anti-VC10: he proposed that the Vickers programme should be shelved in favour of more 707 orders.

Development and production

The prototype Standard, G-ARTA, rolled out of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] factory on 15 April 1962. On 29 June, after two months of ground, engine and taxi tests, it flew to Wisley for further testing.


^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} By the end of the year two more had been flown to Wisley.

A serious problem with drag appeared: to cure it [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] wingtips and "beaver tail" engine [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fairings were added and tested.

Along with a reworking of the basal rudder segment (its scythe shape replaced by an angular design with an endplate for greater control effectiveness), this lengthened testing.

The certification programme included visits to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Rome, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

A VC10 flew across the Atlantic to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 8 February 1964.

By this point seven of the original 12 Standards were complete and the production line was preparing for the Supers.

A [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was awarded on 23 April 1964 and the plane was introduced to regular passenger service between London and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 29 April.

^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} By the end of 1964 all the production requirements had been fulfilled, Vickers (by this point part of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) retaining the prototype.

Super VC10s made a first flight on 7 May 1964.

Although the Super was ostensibly a minor development of the Standard with an extra fuel-tank in the fin, testing was prolonged by the need to move each engine pair 11 in (27 cm) outboard.

This major redesign was needed to resolve tailplane [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and fatigue issues due to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] operation.

The two inboard engines could have thrust reversers installed at last, matching the 707. (Military VC10s also had this engine arrangement.)

The Certificate of Airworthiness was awarded in March 1965.

Super VC10 entered service on 1 April 1965.

Later VC10 design developments included testing a large main-deck freight-door and fitting new wing leading edges featuring a part-drooped, four-per-cent chord extension over the inboard two thirds and a drooped, extended-chord wing-tip that allowed more economical high-altitude flying.
(This mimicked the 1961 aerodynamics of the similar-looking but significantly different [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].)

Further developments proposed included freighter versions, one with front-loading like the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].


Efforts focused on getting a BOAC order for a 250-seat "VC10 Superb",^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} a move away from the VC10's initial MRE role into the area targeted by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The VC10 would have needed an entirely new double-deck fuselage, which raised emergency escape concerns, and the design failed to attract orders.

Operational history

Commercial service and sales

A total of 12 Type 1101 VC10 (registered G-ARVA to G-ARVM) were purchased in 1964-65, followed by 17 Type 1151 Super VC10 in 1965-69 (G-ASGA to G-ASGP and G-ASGR).

The VC10 became an immensely popular aircraft in the BOAC fleet, both with passengers and crew, being particularly praised for its low cabin noise level and comfort. BOAC (and later British Airways) obtained higher load factors with the VC10 than with the 707 or indeed any other aircraft of its fleets.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

Operational experience soon resulted in the deletion of the inboard thrust-reversers due to continued tailplane buffeting despite the engine repositioning.

Two BOAC Super VC10s were lost in terrorist hijackings in 1968 and 1970.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] ordered three VC10s in January 1961: two to be fitted with a cargo door, known as Type 1102s.

The first (registered 9G-ABO) was delivered in November 1964 and the second (9G-ABP) in May 1965: the third was cancelled. Ghana Airways leased 9G-ABP to Tayaran Assharq Alawsat ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]; MEA), destroyed at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] during an Israeli raid in December 1968.

The other, 9G-ABO, was retired from service in 1980.

MEA also leased the prototype aircraft that Vickers had kept until 1965, leased from Freddie (later Sir) [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s charter airline.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}