Vickers VC10

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (BUA), ordered two combi versions (Type 1103) in 1964, receiving them in October that year.

When BOAC ceased VC10 operations to South America BUA took them over, purchasing Ghana Airways' cancelled third aircraft in July 1965 (G-ATDJ, a Type 1103).

The prototype aircraft (G-ARTA) was purchased from Vickers/BAC and converted from Type 1101 to Type 1109 in 1968.

It was initially leased to Middle East Airlines but returned to British Caledonian (as BUA had become) in 1969.

G-ARTA was damaged beyond economical repair in a landing accident at Gatwick in 1972 and the others were sold in 1973-74.

G-ASIW saw further service with Air Malawi, being retired in 1979.


G-ASIX was sold to the Sultan of Oman as VIP transport and was preserved at Brooklands upon its retirement in 1987.

G-ATDJ went to the Royal Aircraft Establishment for equipment tests and was retired in 1980.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] had planned to buy two VC10s but had to cancel the order for financial reasons; it leased BOAC G-ARVA from 1969, but it was destroyed in a landing accident at Lagos in November that year.

The final VC10 was the one of five Type 1154 Super VC10 built for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] between 1966 and 1970 (registered 5X-UVA, 5H-MMT, 5Y-ADA, 5X-UVJ and 5H-MOG).

Of these, 5X-UVA was destroyed in a take-off accident at Addis Ababa in 1972, and the other four were retired in 1977 and returned to BAC, subsequently being purchased by the RAF.


After 5H-MOG was delivered in February 1970, the production line closed, 54 airframes having been built.

The 707 and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], with their superior operating economics, had encouraged many of the world's smaller airports to extend their runways thus eliminating the VC10's main advantage.

Marketing overtures were made elsewhere, particularly in Mexico, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the [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], often fronted by British politicians.


In reminiscences some of these figures have claimed that BOAC staff actively [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] VC10 marketing by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] confidential documents relating to the type's fuel consumption.


The final serious enquiry for VC10s came from Chinese state airline Zhōngguó Mínyòng ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) in 1971.

It was confirmed in 1972 but by then the production equipment had been broken up.

Czechoslovakia, Romania and China eventually purchased the Ilyushin [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
(for [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], respectively).

BOAC's successor [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] began retiring its Super VC10s from Atlantic flights in 1974, mainly due to the 1973 oil crisis, and using them to displace standard VC10s.

Ten of the eleven surviving standard models were retired in 1974-75. Of these, five were leased to Tayaran AlKhalij ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) until 1977-78 then purchased by the RAF.

One was leased to the Government of Qatar for VIP transport until 1981 when it was purchased by the RAF as an instructional airframe.

Another went to the Government of the United Arab Emirates for similar purposes until retirement in 1981 and preservation at Hermeskeil, Germany.

The other three were traded in to Boeing as part payment on new aircraft and Boeing scrapped them at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The last standard VC10 in British Airways service, G-ARVM, was retained as a stand-by for the Super VC10 fleet until 1979.

It was then preserved at RAF Cosford as part of the British Airways Museum collection.

Its condition deteriorated (BA having withdrawn funding of the collection) and it was reduced to a fuselage in 2006 before being moved to the Brooklands Museum in order to create space for the new National Cold War Exhibition.

Retirement of the BA Super VC10 fleet began in April 1980 with use continuing on less-travelled routes until 1981.

After failing to sell them to other operators British Airways sold 14 of the 15 survivors to the RAF in May that year (the exception, G-ASGC, went for preservation at Duxford).

This ended the type's airline service history.

The VC10 served its intended market for a mere decade and a half.


Fully written down and amortised by the 1970s, it could have continued in airline service much longer despite its high fuel consumption but high noise levels on departure and approach sealed its fate.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] the Conways was considered in the late 1970s but rejected on grounds of cost.

Military service

In 1960, the RAF issued Specification 239 for a strategic transport, which resulted in an order being placed by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with Vickers in September 1961 for five VC10s.

The order was increased by an additional six in August 1962, with a further three aircraft cancelled by BOAC added in July 1964.


^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} The military version (Type 1106) was a combination of the Standard combi airframe with the more powerful engines and fin fuel tank of the Super VC10.

^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} It also had a detachable [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] nose probe and an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the tailcone.

The first RAF machine (known to the service as the VC10 C Mk. 1, often abbreviated to VC10 C1), was delivered for testing on 26 November 1965,^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} with deliveries to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] beginning in December 1966 and ending in August 1968.

The VC10s were named after [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (VC) medal holders, displaying the VC holder's name above the forward passenger door.

One aircraft (XR809) was leased to Rolls-Royce for flight testing of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] turbofan between 1969 and 1975.

On return to the RAF it was found that the airframe had become distorted, due to the increase in power from the RB211 fitted to one side of the fuselage over the Conways fitted to the other side.

It considered uneconomical to repair and was instead used for SAS training, before being scrapped.

In late 1977, studies were started into converting redundant commercial VC10s into air-to-air refuelling tankers,^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}with the RAF placing a contract with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to convert five former BOAC (that had been operated by Gulf Air) Standard VC10s and four former East African Airways Super VC10s as air-to-air refuelling tankers.


^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} These were known in service as the VC10 K2 and VC10 K3 respectively. During conversion, extra fuel tanks were installed in what was previously the passenger cabin.


These increased the theoretical maximum fuel load to 85 tons/77 tonnes (K2) and 90 tons/82 tonnes (K3); the fin fuel tank of the Super VC10 making the difference.


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