Vickers VC10

In practice, the fuel load would be capped by the maximum take-off weight before the tanks are completely full.


Both variants had refuelling pods mounted under the wings and a centreline refuelling point, known as a HDU, was installed in the rear freight bay.


An in-flight refuelling probe was fitted on the nose, allowing fuel to be taken from the VC10, Victor or TriStar tankers.

The K2s have since been retired and scrapped starting in 2000, and with ZA142 being the last to be dismantled in 2003.

The K3s are due to be retired in 2014 but may be extended, fatigue hours permitting.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

In 1981, 14 former British Airways Super VC10s were purchased, and these were placed in storage and some were used for spare parts.

In the early 1990s, five of the aircraft were revived and converted to VC10 K4 tankers.

Upon examination prior to the first "major" in-depth servicing of the K4s it was discovered that there was extensive wing plank [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the lower surface of the wings.

This was attributed mainly to the storage method whilst held at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], prior to conversion, whereby the wing tanks were defuelled but then filled with water, in order to add ballast to the aircraft during storage.

This lead to an extensive wing plank corrosion rectification and in some cases plank replacement during subsequent major services.

The K4 has identical refuelling equipment to the K2 and K3, but does not have any extra fuel tanks in the fuselage.

Its fuel capacity remains at 80 tons (70 tonnes), the same as a Super VC10.

Around the same time, the 13 surviving C1s were also equipped with wing refuelling pods and re-designated as VC10 C1K dual-rôle two-point tanker/transports.

Again, no extra tanks were provided and the fuel load remains at 80 tons (70 tonnes).

The in-flight refuelling probe was a feature of the original RAF aircraft, but it was removed for a period during the 1970s and 1980s due to lack of use.

The probe was refitted sometime before the tanker conversions took place.

Another one-time BOAC Standard VC10 was acquired as an instructional airframe/spare parts in 1981, having previously been leased to the Government of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

A former BUA/[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft was acquired by the MoD in 1974 and served with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (RAE) at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

After retirement the fuselage was retained at RAF Brize Norton as an instructional aid for the Air Movements School.

In August 1992, aircraft XR806 suffered a flash fire in a wing fuel tank, whilst undergoing major maintenance and fuel leak rectification, by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Contractor Working Party (CWP), in Base Hangar, at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Two members of the CWP team received burns (one serious) as a result of this incident.

The damage to the aircraft was classified as minimal, due to the fire being classed as a "Flash fire" and no follow-on combustion and the fast response of the emergency services.

The aircraft was repaired and returned to service. In 1997, XR806 was damaged beyond economic repair in a ground de-fuelling accident at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], whereby fuel was drained from the wing & centre section fuel tanks, but not the rear fin tank.

This resulted in an imbalance of the aircraft, making it tail heavy.

The aircraft tipped backwards on its main undercarriage, with the tail of the aircraft crashing heavily onto the hard standing.

This caused damage to the rear cone of the fuselage and lower sections of the rudder. Upon more detailed examination, it was found that the rear pressure bulkhead had suffered severe damage.

The RAF considered a repair scheme, utilising a replacement rear pressure bulkhead from a donor aircraft (the fire trainer at Brize Norton), until an estimate of in excess of £2m was tabled by BAE Systems.

Several other C1K, K2 and K4 aircraft have also been scrapped. The surviving airworthy VC10 C1Ks, K3s and K4s served as tanker/transports with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Squadron at Brize Norton, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], making the RAF the VC10's final operator.

The VC10 and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] tanker/transports are due to be replaced in RAF service by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] under the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Project; they are currently restricted to use as tankers, and will not be used beyond the end of the current 5-year support contract.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

Servicing, repair and conversion

All servicing, including minor, minor star and major servicing, of the RAF fleet of VC10s was undertaken at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which also serves as the RAF's Main Operating Base (MOB).

This took place in a purpose built hangar, known as "Base Hangar", built in 1969 and was considered the largest cantilever-roofed structure in Europe.

Base Hangar is a quarter of a mile in length with no internal supports and the ability that when the full length hangar doors are fully opened provides a vast unobstructed area, where six VC10 aircraft can be positioned beside each other and still provide working space around the aircraft.

During the late 1980s, the RAF/Mod considered moving the major servicing to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], a short distance away from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and the storage location of the future K4 aircraft.


The decision to close [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as an RAF base, and transfer it to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 7 Transport [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] put paid to this. Instead a purpose build hangar facility was built at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], in South Wales. This facility was known as "1 Air Maintenance Sqn" (1 AMS) and could take two VC10s side by side with a dividing wall between the two bays.


Because of the design of the structure it was given the nickname "Twin Peeks". In August 1992, the pre-Dock Day (input date) meeting took place for the 1st aircraft to under go major service at this facility took place within 1 AMS.


This meeting was interrupted with the news of the flash fire, at Base Hangar [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of XR806.

The first aircraft to undergo major servicing at the new facility entered Twin Peeks in January 1993.

Due to the looming out of service date of the remaining VC 10 aircraft, in favour of the FSTA, the last aircraft to undergo major servicing left "Twin Peaks", RAF St Athan.


At this point the "Twin Peaks" hangar was only operating one of the two lines for VC 10's the other line had been stripped of the dedicated staging and utilised for Tornado aircraft.

It is envisaged that a similar fate will fall to the last remaining dedicated bay.

Conversion to K Mk 2, K Mk 3 and K Mk 4 tanker role of the previous civil aircraft took place at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] site. Because the K Mk 3's had a forward freight door this facilitated the insertion of five upper fuselage tanks in the main fuselage of the aircraft.


In the case of the K Mk 2's, there was no forward freight door and it was required to dismantle a large section of the fuselage roof structure for the insertion of the five upper fuselage tanks.

This proved to a mammoth task and for the K Mk 4 conversions, as with the K Mk 2 aircraft, there was no facility of a forward freight door.


For this reason it was decided that there would be no internal refuelling tanks fitted to the K Mk 4s. In the case of the K Mk 2 & 3 conversions there was also extensive floor reinforcement required to accommodate the additional weight of the five tanks and fuel load.

K Mk's 2 and 3 aircraft were classed as three point tankers, consisting of two wing mounted Hose Drum Units (HDU) and one centre fuselage HDU.

MK III

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VC10 C Mk 1 aircraft were supplied to the RAF in specific configuration of a forward freight door (as per the K Mk 3), the "super" VC10 wing (as per the K Mk 3 and 4) and the fin fuel tank.


These aircraft did not have any ability to refuel other aircraft. During the late 1980s and early 1990s these aircraft were converted to C Mk 1 K standard of two point tankers with wing mounted HDUs under each wings.


The C Mk 1's did not have any additional internal tanks and therefore did not require the strengthened flooring.


The conversions were undertaken by Flight Refuelling Limited based at Hurn Airport, near Bournemouth.