Air Malawi VC10.
Vickers, or BAC as it became part of, needed to recoup its costs. The company might have made over £70 million from the 400+ Viscount sales, and had had good turnover from the Valiant project for the RAF, but the costs of the V1000 and the solely Vickers-funded VC7 studies had not been recouped. Without Vanguard orders, Vickers would have been in trouble. But VC10-from-Vanjet had, by 1960, become a very expensive undertaking. The company’s sales team worked to market and sell the VC10, and had already thought about marketing the Super VC10 to a wider global audience. Getting ex-British colonies to look at a prospective purchase was easier than getting Pan Am, or other organisations beyond the legacy of the Empire, to consider the VC10. But approaches to Asian, Middle Eastern and South American carriers were all made.
A lesser known airline – Varanair of Siam (to become Thailand) – was targeted and liveries and a model Super VC10 created; Vickers sales teams made presentations to Egypt’s Misrair, Aerolineas Argentinas, Lan Chile, and there was a little-known approach to PLUNA of Uruguay in June 1961. In July 1961, Poland’s airline, LOT was also targeted. A Super VC10 sales model in the colours of Greece’s Olympic Airways was also created. As late as 1966, CSA of Czechoslovakia were approached (despite the politics inherent) and a demonstration flight in Prague took place, yet to no avail.1 As late as 1971, amid suggestions of selling DH/HS Tridents to China, a BAC sales team spoke to the Chinese about a possible VC10 licensed production series to be built in China, or re-starting the Brooklands production line for an order of 120 airframes, but the British Government failed to secure the project.
The Pan Am VC10?
A formal proposal to Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) was made in New York in 1960 of not just the Standard VC10, but also the proposed freighter variants. Vickers printed up a joint logo Pan Am/Vickers brochure and technical review booklet. Clearly depicted therein was a planform view of a VC10 with wing leading edge root fillets as an ‘LR1’ and with trailing edge fillets in an ‘LR2’ version – both fillets housing extra fuel tanks! Wing tip fuel pods, as seen on the Comet 4, were also cited. Removable cylindrical extra fuel tanks in the cargo hold could also add a safety margin for winter operations.
The ‘Pan Am Spec’ VC10 could have carried 20,625 imperial gallons of fuel and might seat 196 Coach Class passengers for transcontinental US long-haul flights, or less in a two-class cabin for intercontinental flights. The BOAC Empire-route flight deck and its need for several extra officers could also be dispensed with – two crew operations being a new idea.
The Pan Am-spec Super VC10 would boast 196 Economy Class seats, or 175 with a small First Class cabin included. Here too was seen the idea of an underfloor compartment behind the flight deck – an early crew rest cabin proposal, but also a possible six-seater cocktail lounge. Vickers General Sales Manager (USA), Geoffrey Knight, made a clever and detailed technical presentation to Pan Am as early as 1960 and lightly developed engines with better cruise fuel consumption could be secured (as suggested), the ‘Pan Am Super VC10’ with large main cabin, two crew, and extra max-payload range, was quoted by Vickers to deliver a seat per mile cost of US$ 2.83 dollars (average) and US$2.59 dollars on a 4,000 mile nonstop sector. These highly competitive figures did break the US$3.45 dollar cost on a short 500 mile sector. The airline took a serious look at this original ‘Super’ VC10 proposal, but alas, it was not to be.
An internal Vickers memo dated 28 October 1960 and featuring the view of Geoffrey Knight, categorically evidences that Pan Am were impressed by the VC10s abilities, particularly for their South American routes.2 Yet Boeing’s stranglehold and its ability to quickly revise the early 707 were key reasons why Pan Am avoided any further VC10 approaches.
Sadly, it was all, not to be. BOAC took the longer, but shortened Super VC10, and it was Africa that would provide the VC10 and Super VC10 with a brief but vital extension of life. Ghana Airways took just one VC10, but EAA took four Super VC10s – with the cargo door option.
Ghana Airways
As is known, the influence of empire and colonialism lived on in the new independent Africa of ex-British colonies. While ex-French colonies purchased Caravelles, the ex-British colony of Ghana did not need much arm twisting to purchase its first jet airline – a Type 1102 Standard model VC10 – that incorporated the improved wing leading edge and new wingtips that Vickers had readied early in the development process to improve lift and reduce drag.
A hiccup along the way had been Russian influence in West Africa and the troubles brewing in Nigeria. Ghana had briefly flirted with Moscow and Ghana Airways soon found itself flying Antonov 12s, Ilyushin IK-18s and a DC-6s! A leased Bristol Britannia sounded like a better idea, but in fact it was an ageing ex BOAC Stratocruiser – G-ANTZ – known in Africa as ‘Ants’, that BOAC arranged for the start-up new airline to operate between Accra and London via Rome, Frankfurt and even Barcelona.
Ghana Airways had been born in 1958 and was part-capitalised by BOAC and it was natural that the Britannia flew in Ghana Airways titles.
By 1961, under a new President, Ghana could see larger air traffic numbers between Accra and London, and the airline ordered three VC10s in 1961. The latter two were to have the forward cargo door that Vickers had come up with. By November the first ‘GH’ – Ghana Airways VC10 Type 1102 – had been delivered in a smart new livery designed at Brooklands. This aircraft – 9G-ABO – would shuttle between the two cities of Accra and London for sixteen years without fuss or accident. An initial period of using British crews ended when Ghanaian pilots were to become fully qualified on the VC10. The three VC10s seemed to suggest over-enthusiasm and routes to America and the Middle East failed to materialise, the two further GH VC10s were excess to the airline, with 9G-ABP being sold off and leased to MEA, where it was damaged by munitions in Israeli military action at Beirut Airport in 1968 – a nearly new VC10 lost. The third ‘GH’ machine went to BUA as G-ATDJ and an after-life with the British RAE/MoD. Yet the sole 9G-ABO was kept so busy that it had to be repainted by part process during scheduled maintenance and so often appeared in non-standard colours even after a bright new livery was created in 1976.
The Ghana Airways machines became legend in Ghana – even far out in the countryside, the national airline’s VC10 was famous and copied for the extravagant coffin designs popular in that society. Ghanaians were justly proud of their VC10 operation, and even buses in downtown Accra sported murals of 9G-ABO. Crowds would cheer from the roof of Accra airport when 9G-ABO thundered down the runway and rotated up and off to London. Was not this exactly the operating environment and effect that Vickers had intended for the VC10 in Africa?
Laker and BUA to BCAL
No one could ever call Frederick Laker (Sir ‘Freddie’ Laker) a snob. Laker was a sharp character, a clever businessman; above all he was quick – he had to be to survive. Not everyone loved him, but you had to admire his verve and tenacity. So while BOAC vacillated and pondered, Laker leapt on the VC10 bandwagon and made the most of the opportunity. In fact the re-manufactured VC10 Type 1100 prototype was the subject of a Laker lease to become a BUA /BCAL airframe.
Laker’s British United Airways had been talking to Vickers during the VC10 production stage and therefore can be given some credit as an important contributor to the VC10 story.
As the airline world’s great cartels of established airlines lost their grip in the early 1960s, as new routes deemed perhaps far too menial for flag-carriers to bother with, people like Laker snapped at the heels of expanding civil aviation – not least the charter flight market which Laker and his BAC 1-11 fleet would be part of creating. Laker flew cargo, people, in fact anything anywhere, and that included troops on military charters. But in bidding for premier route licences, Laker and his ‘on-paper’ Laker Airways and nascent ‘British United’ entered a new world – one where they needed a smart, new jet. BUA had used second-hand Britannias and DC-6s. After being granted route licences to South America where Comets and 707s reigned (even Aerolineas Argentinas had Comet 4s), Laker did a deal with BAC (the Vickers name having by this time being subsumed into the new conglomerate) to purchase the modified G-ARTA – modified to Laker’s personal theories.
With route licences awarded to South America and West Africa (at BOAC’s expense) Laker began to make good profits. He did so by offering a combination of flexibility of product and offered mixed cargo/freight and passenger opportunities by getting his VC10 equipped with the forward cabin cargo bay and a large upwards-opening cargo door leading into a reinforced cabin floor. His VC10 could thus be a ‘combi’ configuration with eighty-four Economy Class seats and a large cargo bay, and he could offer a small First Class cabin too. Alternatively, rearwards facing seats could be fitted throughout the whole cabin and Laker could service his Ministry of Defence trooping contracts. And if a Russian or Asian crew of fisherman or super tanker crews wanted to be taken from Sydney to somewhere obscure, Laker could fix that too because a VC10 could get in, and out, of almost anywhere.
Laker’s first production VC10 order for BUA was G-ASIX and it entered service on 31 July 1964 – not long after BOAC’s 1101 model VC10s. Laker’s machine had the revised wing leading edge profile, 4% chord increase and new wingtip profiles. This specification was his VC10 Type 1103 and made the most of the improvements that BOAC had ignored, and which Ghana Airways had accepted on their first Type 1102 VC10. By October 1964, Laker’s BUA had received G-ASIW and that entered service just in time for Christmas of that year. Ghana Airways were very pleased with their first VC10, 9G-ABO, but did not take up the option of their second VC10, which would have been registered 9G-ABQ. Laker seized the machine off the production line and it received an out-of-sequence registration as G-ATDJ.
BAC (still referred to in the trade as Vickers) decided to try and recoup some of the money it had laid out on the VC10 programme and took the decision to fully renew its prototype VC10 airframe G-ARTA, that had appeared in BOAC’s colours, but never been flown in BOAC service. After a refit that in part was a rebuild and reconfiguration, a refreshed G-ARTA emerged – Freddie Laker smelt a bargain on offer and pounced, but Laker had to accept that it would not have the forward cargo door to his ‘BUA’ specification. This aircraft was immediately leased to Middle East Airlines and wore their full livery as OD-AFA. It was later written off in British Caledonian colours during an empty landing at Gatwick in windy conditions in 1972. A heavy landing had kinked the fuselage and stressed the rear end; it was deemed not economically viable to repair.
BUA’s VC10s crossed the Andes, dropped in to Nairobi, toured the shipping ports and cities of the Far East, and on occasion even performed short haul holiday charter flights in Europe. BUA VC10s also appeared in ‘Sierra Leone’ titles serving the far west of West Africa’s arc of history after a 1960 agreement to set up that nation’s new air service. Laker seized the opportunity to serve Sierra Leone Airways with a Britannia and then a BUA VC10 carrying very large Sierra Leone titling. In 1961, Britannias had served a Freetown- Gatwick- Freetown schedule, in late 1964, the VC10 G-ASIW, embarked on a leased ‘Sierra Leone’ titled service that lasted into 1965.3
Freddie Laker took his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud on a sales and marketing tour of East Africa and to South America in his ‘personal’ VC10, the Rolls emerging from the cargo cabin and descending on a lift to be driven away across the tarmac. The Union Jack featured large in BUA’s original livery, but was smaller in the airline’s new ‘BUA’ logo typed colour scheme of 1966. BUA served Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Uruguay – this was the oft-forgotten domain of BUA’s all-white VC10s in remote corners of South America. Many are sure that if he could have, Laker would have used his VC10s in cargo mode to haul beef from the outback cattle stations of the region! Such a task was, and remained, the home of ancient prop-liners that were once prestige beats for major airlines.
Laker and BUA worked their VC10s hard – with two airframes clocking up 3,000 flying hours in just 390 sectors. And if BOAC could offer passengers various in-flight mementos and a ‘Junior Jet Club’ book for children, Laker could do the same thing – producing a very attractive certificate for those crossing the equator by BUA VC10. With BUA you could also get of one of its short-haul BAC 1-11s and then onto a BUA long-haul VC10 in a seamless transfer.
In 1970, with Laker having ‘left’ BUA, the airline was absorbed by British Caledonian, and the VC10 fleet soon reappeared in Caledonian’s attractive blue livery with a large lion rampant upon the tailfin and with Scottish names applied. ‘B-Cal’, as it was tagged, used 707-320s on its long-haul routes, but continued to use the ex-BUA machines on South American and other services including to West Africa. After just under five years’ work, the high-cycle and hard worked VC10s were sold off.
Air Malawi VC10.
Nigeria Airways and ‘5N-ABD’
Ghana’s neighbour, Nigeria, was also an ex-British colony, but one with a more troubled history. Again, it was natural that the emerging Nigeria Airways, so long a previous Imperial Airways, West African Airways arena, and a BOAC premier route, should be a VC10 application. BOAC and Nigeria Airways operated a joint service on the Stratocruiser and Argonaut runs from London to Kano and Lagos with BOAC providing the machinery and flight crew and Nigeria Airways supplying some cabin crews and ground services. The Nigeria Airways logo would be applied via adhesive stickers to the aircraft deployed to the route. Britannias took over this route too – jointly titled with Nigeria Airways stickers, and the airlines airline code ‘WT’ being applied to the flights to and from London.
The Lagos run was a pot of gold for BOAC and for Nigeria Airways (WT), and soon a BOAC was also jointly titled up for the BOAC/WT flights to West Africa. BOAC’s G-ARVA and G-ARVI received the smart green and gold Nigeria Airways stickers on their noses as part of a wet-lease agreement and this led to a fully painted Nigeria Airways VC10 in green and white stripes. In 1969, this then led to Nigeria Airways purchasing BOAC’s G-ARVA – that airline’s first VC10. It was registered as 5N-ABD and operated by a mix of ex-BOAC crews. Sadly, it crashed on final approach to Lagos on 20 November 1969, in circumstances of a let-down procedure and runway/air traffic control events that led to disaster, with all on board perishing in the impact, or worse, having survived that, in the ensuing fire. Nigeria Airways would go on to bigger things – including a brief Boeing 747 affair. British Caledonian would also pick up the old BOAC links with Lagos.
Air Malawi and ‘7Q-YKH’
After Rhodesia’s little local political difficulties and a declaration of independence from London’s reach, BOAC served Malawi (Chileka Airport) with the VC10, as an alternate port of call. BUA also used Malawi instead of Salisbury and EAA served the destination. So the shape and ability of the VC10 was familiar to Malawians and their leadership. The nation had also been part of colonial British history and been familiar with Central African Airways and Vickers Viking airliners.
By the early 1970s, the idea of Malawi having its own jet airliner service to Europe, in order to serve its growing trade and international status, manifested in early1974 in the lease of an ex-BUA, BCAL Standard VC10 service in which a BCAL-liveried VC10 operated an Air Malawi service from Gatwick to Blantyre and return on a weekly basis. By the end of that year, BCAL had sold a Type 1103 ex-BUA VC10 (G-ASIW) to the Malawi Government as 7Q-YKH. Painted up at Gatwick in a rather old fashioned red and white livery, the machine became the flagship of the Malawian regime under Dr Hastings Banda. The initial services began in December 1974 and saw good load figures. By late 1976, the idea of stopping en route at Amsterdam Schiphol was framed and that service began in early 1977.
A twice-weekly Air Malawi service to Gatwick and a local schedule to the Seychelles and other East African airports led to the sole VC10 accruing sixty hours a week in the air. This was asking a lot from a second-hand airframe, but 7Q-YKH did, in the main perform well, and had the benefit of the forward cabin cargo compartment and door. Freight traffic soon gained a place in the economics of the service. Sadly, with rising fuel costs, engine and airframe overhaul events, the Air Malawi VC10 chapter closed in September 1978. The aircraft went into storage at Bournemouth Hurn (where 7Q-YKH’s tail had been built at the Vickers facility) for a long and expensive fallow period. With no buyer found, 7Q-YKH was flown back to Malawi after sitting for three years at Hurn. Plenty of fettling, adding oils, changing tyres, running the electrics and hydraulics and days of ground runs, let an Air Malawi crew remove the VC10 on a Malawian airworthiness certificate back to Chileka field via Athens.
There, the VC10 sat for nearly a decade, deteriorating and becoming a hulk. She tipped over backwards, falling onto her tail, and had to be righted.4 Then, in 1995, she was chopped up for scrap. It was a sad end to the VC10 as part of African aviation.
Gulf Air and the ‘A40’ VC 10s
Aviation in the Gulf stemmed from the efforts of Imperial Airways in the region in the 1930s. So the British were closely linked to the development of airlines in the Gulf. Today’s major carriers can all trace their origins back to early aviation in this hot arena.
Gulf Air began with DC-3s, yet expanded rapidly into jet aviation. By 1975 the convenient opportunity of BOAC becoming British Airways (BA) and the availability of its waning Standard model VC10s, which although a decade old and hard worked, were in excellent condition, well maintained and still had plenty of flight cycles left in them. Gulf Air had, of course, an Imperial Airways and BOAC history – BOAC owned shares in the company. Transferring its VC10s was not a huge challenge.
Having done a deal in 1972 with BOAC for a VC10 to operate with ‘Gulf Air’ stickers applied to its noses for scheduled services to Bahrain from London Heathrow, in 1974, Gulf Air purchased five of the BOAC VC10 fleet, and these came with a contingent of BOAC/BA VC10 pilots who were either transferred or directly employed on short-term contracts on lucrative terms. Some RAF and EAA pilots also went to work at Gulf Air on the VC10 fleet. British cabin crews also found a happy home on the Gulf VC10s. The VC10s gave up their dignified BOAC colours and emerged as all-white with a triple coloured stripe running from the nose and up the VC10s stylish tail. With a Gulf ‘A-40’ registration added in front of the former BOAC (British) registration, the original BOAC sub-registration lived on, as an example G-ARVC became A40-VC. Four ‘A40’ VC10s followed on.
After just three years of operations (which included a sublease of A40-VL to Air Ceylon to operate on Heathrow to Colombo services), Gulf Air went widebodied and ordered Lockheed TriStars. The VC10 fleet had just begun to appear in the Gulf ’s new ‘Golden Falcon’ livery, and two of them sported the new paint scheme, but most of the fleet were wound down and were not painted – instead they were sold off to Dismore Aviation (brokers) in December 1977 and January 1978, prior to conversion to RAF K2 Type. Gulf ’s A40-VL was, in early 1978, the last Standard VC10 in scheduled airline service.
So popular was the VC10 in the Gulf States that no less than three airframes became the personal transport of local leaders.
The Government of Qatar purchased a lease on BOAC’s G-ARVJ for the ruler’s personal flight and the aircraft was eventually retired in 1981 and went to the RAF for conversion.
BOAC’s G-ARVF was sold for the very healthy sum of just under £700,000 to the United Arab Emirates Government in 1974 and served with Sheikh Zayed as a stunning executive jet until 1981 prior to being preserved at the Hermeskeil aviation museum in Germany.
The Sultan of Oman Royal Flight purchased G-ASIX from BCAL as A40-AB (he donated it back to Brooklands Museum at the end of its career on 6 July 1987). Equipped with lounges and double-bedrooms, this was a VC10 with a unique history.
Middle East Airlines
MEA had flown DH Comet 4s and Viscounts, so the VC10 was natural territory for the Beirut-based airline. MEA had big ambitions – even transatlantic routes – but failed to secure the licences it wanted. MEA was unable to secure trade agreements with the British Government that would have leveraged the funding for purchase of two or even three VC10s in 1966. MEA became a Boeing 707 customer, but did lease two VC10s for a brief period. The second Ghana Airways machine was registered in Ghana as 9G-ABP and leased to MEA two years later in 1967, but was destroyed by military action at Beirut Airport on 28 December 1968. So was lost a nearly-new, low-hours VC10.
The ex BUA/Laker VC10 remanufactured prototype, G-ARTA, was sub-leased to MEA and registered as such. It was used for 11 months in 1968 as OD-AFA, then going to BCAL as G-ARTA again.
East African Airways and the ‘5’ Star Supers
There may be some irony in the fact that the final, ultimate Super VC10s – the last built – were operated by East African Airways (EAA) rather than the originating order airline; BOAC itself. BOAC had by this time walked away from its original larger Super VC10 order and the forward cabin cargo door equipped ‘Combi’ version.
EAA ordered its new fleet in early 1965 and took rapid delivery with the first Super VC10, 5X-UVA arriving in 1966. Boeing 707s had been looked at by EAA, and they had ordered DC-9s for regional use in Africa to replace its prop-liner fleet, but the company already had de Havilland Comet 4 experience. EAAs chairman, Chief Fundikra, was convinced of the Super VC10s abilities out of hot and high Nairobi and its 5,320ft altitude runway. With the forward fuselage cabin cargo door added, along with all the aerodynamic refinements added, and with ‘B’-spec Rolls-Royce Conway 43/550s that pumped out at least 22,500lbs thrust each; the EAA Super VC10s were the largest, most powerful and sleekest sight in African skies. Like BOAC had done, EAA threw an expensive advertising campaign at the Super VC10 and its potential customers all over the world. EAA decided to make the most of everything about the Super VC10 being just that – Super. Direct flights to and from African and Europe – fully loaded – were possible and the planned EAA service to New York, just one refuelling stop away. EAAs ‘Supers’ beat BOAC’s Super VC10 into African skies – the latter’s machines eventually tracking down to South Africa and the Seychelles/Mauritius service – also crossing the Indian Ocean up to Singapore and Hong Kong.
EAA ordered a fourteen-seat First Class cabin and an eleven-seat Economy Class; between the two lay the lucrative freight cabin that so added to the export economy of East Africa.
Everything Vickers had learned went into the Super VC10s and for the EAA machines a new bold white livery was designed. The addition of multi-coloured side stripes made the Super VC10 look even longer than the dignified blue of BOAC, and the EAA blue lion emblem was positioned just behind the cockpit windows. On the tail fin could be found the flags of each of the three ‘East African’ consortium nations which had created the jointly owned airline of Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda. Each nation had a new post-colonial registration prefix and the EAA Super VC10 fleet was therefore labelled with ‘5Y’ (Kenya), ‘5H’ (Tanganyika) and ‘5X’ (Uganda). Inside the fleet, very expensive-looking murals of African wildlife and safari scenes were moulded into the bulkheads and cabin sidewall fittings. Seat covers were in bright blues, greens and yellows.
EAA’s Super VC10 crews came from Comet 4 and prop-liner (Argonaut and DC-3) experience in Africa; they too formed a close-knit ‘club’. The EAA Super VC10 fleet flew east to India and Asia – notably a Hong Kong service, and transited Zurich for London Heathrow and a crew base at the Skyways Hotel where much fun was had. The Super VC10s also provided a high-quality service across Africa to Lagos and Accra. EAA used its Super VC10s to numerous European holiday destinations and in early operations tended to make the airliners stop more often than the task for which they had been designed – to the detriment of fuel and crew costings. This practice was soon modified. The concept and sight of a direct link between Nairobi and New York with a bright and shiny new Super VC10 was perhaps the greatest operational achievement of the EAA Super VC10 story – 5H-MOG flew the inaugural service on 10 December 1970 under the command of Captain G. Leslie. EAA also achieved the first sight of the Super VC10 in Australian and New Zealand skies in 1974 – carrying the Kenyan team to the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.
The Super VC10 fleet was crewed by local, ex-pat, and increasing numbers of indigenous African flight deck crews and, in the main, was one big happy family that was close to the hearts of many East Africans – whatever their race or creed. Sadly, EAA lost a Super VC10 at Addis Ababa in tragic circumstances, a difficult decision at high speed on take-off that was a reaction to events that were not the fault of the crew, and neither were the immediate events that followed, as the machine failed to properly slow down due to braking maintenance issues and airfield topography and placements.
The power, safety, and sheer style of the EAA Super VC10s carved a niche in African history; EAA also made money with its fleet of Vickers jets, and yet the new ‘open skies’ policy subjected EAA’s key routes to strong competition. International, Ugandan, and domestic Kenyan events and policies doomed the airline and as its financial position floundered, it eventually went bankrupt on 27 January 1977 after several years of cash flow problems and unpaid bills and refused fuel carnets. The still-young fleet was promptly grabbed on account of overdue airframe payments and repossessed straight back to the UK, where they then sat dry-wrapped for a number of years prior to conversion with fuselage fuel tanks for the RAF air-to-air tanker fleet (BOAC’s Super VC10 lacked the cargo door and did not receive the full cabin tank layout).
So ended the final chapter of the VC10 family, Vickers aviation in Africa and an African airline operating a Super VC10 jet that had been ‘Super’ in every way.
EAA’s Super VC10, 5X-UVA, was EAA’s first and flew from 12 October until it was written off in the take-off accident at Addis Abba on 18 April 1972, when a punctured nose wheel and subsequent events caused it to crash off the runway and burn out, with many casualties but some survivors – the only Super VC10 accident. 5H-MMT entered EAA service in October 1966 and upon EAA’s bankruptcy in 1977, was repossessed and ferried to Filton Bristol, latterly to be converted to RAF Type 1164 K Mk3 – 5Y-ADA. 5X-UVJ arrived in Nairobi in April 1969 and was repossessed in May 1977; it was sold to the RAF for conversion. 5H-MOG was the last ever built VC10 of any type – as a Super VC10 – and was a child of the 1970s, being completed in February 1970. It served just seven years with EAA before being repossessed to Filton in August 1977 and thence to the RAF as Type 1164 K Mk 3, joining 101 Squadron in February 1985.5
SVC10 ‘Superb’ Double Decker.
The RAF and the VC10: T-tailed Transport to Tanker
RAF Transport Command (or Support Command) was, in fact, the RAF’s de facto ‘airline’ and, as the jet age changed military aviation with the fighters and bombers of the era – notably, the Hunter, Lightning, Vulcan, Victor, Valiant, and other wonderfully named devices – the RAF needed a large and fast transport aircraft to supply and service the materials and men such machines demanded. As the Cold War developed, the RAF would also be required to uplift cargo, soldiers, and all the plethora of Britain’s end-of-Empire era.
A big RAF transport jet was needed, and just as was the case for BOAC, the Comet 4 was too small and the Britannia – however brilliant – too slow and to small, but nevertheless enduringly useful. The fact was, however, that uniquely, a fleet of RAF VC10s could, in one go, rapidly deliver for deployment over 500 troops (armed infantry), a mix of men and freight including armour to 14tonnes weight (with bombs and vehicles in the cargo hold) to a combat or tension zone, non-stop over 4,000 miles away (or further with refuelling) in well under one day. Alternatively, an RAF VC10 could rescue a large number of casualties with seventysix stretcher ‘Casevac’ cases and an onboard medical set-up with operating facility.
For Vickers, developing the Valiant into the V1000 for just such a new RAF ‘big jet’ demand had led to the civilianised VC7 airliner. As we know, that died, but not before it had left a legacy upon the Vickers Vanjet studies and the final outcome as the VC10 itself. The Boeing 707, of course, began life as an offshoot of military airframe procurement process.
So the VC10 for BOAC was also born from a military airframe process – if less obviously. It was natural then that the VC10 project should include an RAF variant from the start. Indeed, Sir George Edwards cited the RAF as the VC10’s most nationally important user. In the record of VC10 and BOAC history, we cannot ignore the RAF VC10 story and a charting of it – not least as BOAC shared with the RAF some aspects of VC10 crew training and maintenance.
The RAF’s thirteen C Mk1 VC10s were ‘tweaked’ airframes and the original variants were ‘hot-rods’ of the air because they had the more powerful Conway engines from the Super VC10 and the revised wing of the developed Super-Type Super VC10 – itself stemming from work on the aerodynamics of the VC10s wing first seen on the Type 1102 VC10 airframes. With the forward cargo door added and a stronger cabin floor designed to take such cargo loads using a ‘roller’ movement system, the RAF VC10s were heavier, more powerful, and therefore the RAF VC10 was thus less focused on seat per mile costs and long-range operating economics.
At maximum weight, the heavier and more fuel thirsty VC10 Mk1 has a shorter max-payload range than a Standard model VC10 – 3,185nm – but a higher 59,000lb payload, which might include vehicles in the cargo cabin. However, provided it was not heavily loaded up to MTOW, an RAF VC10 C Mk1 with a reasonable load and with the extra tail fin fuel tank full could, with high altitude cruise levels, achieve a range of over 5,000 miles. This despite extra weight – even the seats (rearwards facing) in the RAF VC10 were heavier. Numerous other production changes included an auxiliary power unit, a standard fit HYRAT emergency hydraulic generator to complement the electrical ELRAT, and these differences created the distinct RAF VC10 C Mk 1 – or Vickers Type 1006. But it was not until Christmas of 1965 that the first RAF VC10 took flight – just over a year after the first BOAC VC10 entered service. RAF acceptance and first service flight came in May 1966. Interestingly, BOAC helped the RAF with VC10 pilot conversion training – after all, both BOAC and RAF pilots came, in the main, to the VC10 from the same aircraft – Comet and Britannia.
Vickers received its RAF VC10 orders in September 1961 – for an initial five airframes – and the team set to work to create the RAF specification VC10. A total of fourteen RAF VC10s were ordered, but the fleet was reduced by one airframe when it went to the Rolls-Royce fleet as a test bed for the RB211 high-bypass ratio development testing programme as G-AXLR.
The key C Mk1 design developments were in wing, engine and structural changes.
The stronger floor, which could take a load of 1,000lbs/sq ft, added weight which allowed a near-6,000lbs maximum load with spreaders – more than enough for a vehicle or bomb rack, but by this time, VC10 and Super VC10 aerodynamics work came together which recouped some of the weight-related performance loss via lower induced and wake drag achievements. So the RAF VC10 was more aerodynamically efficient with the new Super VC10 wing, and also boasted the wider and revised incidence engine mounting stub wing. The forward fuselage cargo door and its mechanism added weight and a very small local aerodynamic penalty around its frame. The Super VC10 engines – the Conway 550s – had also by this time been uprated from 22,500lbs to 22,800lbs thrust as a 550B, by inserting an extra intermediate compressor stage. The Super VC10 tail fin fuel tank of 1,350gallons was also added. An RAF-specific option was a self-starter for the VC10 – ideal in non-airline locations – so was added the Bristol Siddeley ‘Artouste’ auxiliary power unit (APU) and the revised tail cone to house it. The sheet metal at the nose was altered too – to allow provision for the addition of an in-flight refuelling probe.
All-White VC10s
Painted in the all-white RAF livery with a bright blue cheatline ‘flash’ the RAF VC10s looked very different indeed to the BOAC versions and performed with even more panache. BOAC’s cancelled Super VC10 orders meant that the RAF could jump in and get quicker VC10 C Mk1 built slots for its Type 1106 airframes and the first RAF VC10 registered as XR806 took off from Brooklands on 26 November 1965, entering RAF service with the reformed No. 10 Squadron in July of 1966, but not performing its first full RAF ‘airline’ Transport Command duties until early 1967 after months of crew training and route proving all over the world – where on occasion, local BOAC VC10 knowledge came to assist.
The home base for the RAF VC10 years was Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Its single runway saw continuous VC10 operations up to 2014 and with some poignancy saw the ex-BOAC/BA, Gulf Air and EAA civil airframes return to service from a base deep in the English countryside.
From 1966, RAF Transport/Support Command received twelve of its own distinct VC10 ‘hot-rods’ and used them to build the RAF’s equivalent of a daily, worldwide air transport service. With room for 150 troops, or a lower seat number of 139 in airline standard comfort, and/or a mixed load of cargo or medical/ casualty evacuation accommodation the fleet (all named after RAF Victoria Cross holders) began the legend of the VC10 in RAF service. This included the British withdrawal from its old colonial outposts on what were once Imperial Airways routes. At its 1970s height, the RAF’s own ‘airline’ at Brize Norton carried nearly 10,000 passengers a month and operated an airline style check-in facility. Some of the VC10 fleet were averaging 200 flying hours a month. Daily, or several times a week services to Aden, Cyprus, Gan, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Washington ran with VC10 precision. The ‘Base’ Hangar was kept busy fettling VC10s round-the-clock.
A principal role for the RAF VC10 fleet had been Royal and VIP/Diplomatic flights all over the world for over thirty years. The first use of the VC10 being in May 1965 when her Majesty the Queen visited Ethiopia by BOAC VC10. However, arriving by RAF VC10 with the flag flying always made its mark. RAF C Mk1s for Royal or VIP duties could be converted into a VIP cabin arrangement with tables, sofas and beds.
Inside the massive VC10 ‘Base’ hangar, they carried out the repairs and maintenance of the RAF fleet, with up to six VC10s being accommodated at the same time inside the building – this was where the RAF also experienced an unfortunate VC10 ‘jacking’ accident, as had BOAC, BUA and EAA.
BOAC had had their VC10s in service for nearly three years, and Super VC10s in service for two years, when the RAF VC10 full in-service ‘airline’ schedule began towards late 1967. This meant that the RAF could benefit from BOAC experience and RAF crews were trained by BOAC on its simulators at Cranebank and also fly ‘live’ sectors on the BOAC routes. We should note that like BOAC, the RAF never lost a VC10. This speaks volumes for the quality of design and pilot training and behaviours of both organisations.
Latterly, the RAF and BOAC shared maintenance knowledge with the RAF VC10 fleet.
There is some irony that the VC10 itself was born from a military project with a civil airframe offshoot, only to end up as a military airframe born as an offshoot (and a latter day conversion) from a civil airliner. Both roles demonstrate the excellence of the VC10 design and build quality. The RAF C Mk1 VC10 fleet achieved excellent reliability figures and where problems arose the RAF developed its own techniques for solving those problems – in fact it implemented a schedule of preventative, rather than reactive measures. This included coming up with a new, quicker, cheaper way of changing the tailplane by chemically freezing and shrinking the main mounting pivot and inserting it ‘cold’, thus ensuring a lower stress level during fitting.
As in airline service, the VC10 could develop problems with axles and brakes, and the RAF experienced several such events. A fleet-wide axle replacement programme stemmed from an incident of axle failure. The RAF’s high utilisation rates revealed a need for a different grade of engine oil, and a limitation on nose wheel tyre degradations due to the dangers of the engines ingesting thrown tyre treads. The RAF VC10 maintenance team at Brize Norton developed a VC10-specific, travelling spares package of vital items which could be accommodated in the main hold. This ensured that en route issues could be dealt with rather than having to wait for spares. Just as with BOAC service, the lack of many other operators en route meant that the VC10 had to look after itself – although the RAF could always ask BOAC!
VC10 K Mk 2, K Mk 3 & K Mk 4
Before BOAC’s successor, British Airways, ‘dumped’ its just-retired fleet of Super VC10s in a field in Oxfordshire at Abingdon (and at Prestwick Scotland) in 1981– where they would be stored for over five weather worn years, in some cases badly rotting away – there were the remaining early BOAC Standard VC10 airframes to be disposed of. By 1976 they were being considered for sale and Gulf Air purchased five. It was the ex-Gulf Air fleet of standard BOAC Standards that were first ferried to Bristol Filton to enter into an inspired idea – rebuilding VC10 airliners as RAF air-to-air flight refuelling tankers, formulated by government in 1978 under ‘ASR 406’ schedule. Next up would come the four remaining East African Airways Super VC10s, the last machines built, which had been repossessed in 1977 and were relatively still ‘fresh’ in age, but had endured more short-flight ‘cycles’ of take-off, pressurisations and landing (all of higher fatigue), than the BOAC/BA long-haul machines which, although they had spent between eleven and twelve hours a day on the wing every day they were in service, had experienced fewer ‘cycles’ from take-off to landing.
The ‘K2’ label applied to the ex BOAC/Gulf Air machines as a new Type number of 1112, and the K3 name applied to the ex EAA Super VC10s as Type 1164. The whole rebuilding project was ordered via the Weybridge-Bristol Division of British Aerospace (latterly ‘BAE’). A principal upgrade was the fitting of the developed Conway 550 B engine with 22,800lbs static thrust across all the airframes – requiring some expense. Each wing had a flight refuelling pod with a 50ft trailing hose and localised reinforcement of the outer wing was required for the mounting points. A third, central drum-type ‘HDU’ 81ft hose refuelling point was applied under the tail of the K. Mk2, and this required revised metalwork to the lower fuselage lobe. The extra fuel tankage was applied inside the old passenger cabin and featured five, double-skinned, cylindrical metal tanks on bearer frames, with flexible membrane cells in each tank. The external venting of fuel vapours was a vital consideration. Fitting a nose-mounted flight refuelling probe also added to the range of the tanker itself, offering good flexibility wherever the deployment. Only the oil-capacity of each engine could be the limiting endurance factor.
A whole new array of electronic systems for control, navigation and communications were also added to the old analogue ‘clockwork’ VC10 flight decks. CCTV would be fitted to enable the fuel operator to closely monitor the receiving aircraft.
The ex BOAC/Gulf Air machines had had to have holes cut in their roof panels to insert the tanks – but the ex EAA machines were equipped with the cabin cargo door – making conversion easier and cheaper in terms of metal and man-hours.
For safe conversion and a new ‘zero-timed’ parts replacement programme to be effective, the VC10s and Super VC10s were stripped bare, down to their keels, cleats, and under skin structures. Everything was forensically examined, microscopically sampled, and replace or repaired where necessary. From finsupports to wing ribs and wing boxes, from engine struts to tailplane skins and to windows, the airframes were effectively re-manufactured; at least there were plenty of spares lying about!
The first K Mk2 was ZA 141 (ex G-ARVG), first flying as a tanker on 22 June 1982 and wearing a camouflage livery not common to subsequent airframes; the first K Mk3 was to be ZA 148 (ex 5Y-ADA) and first flown as a tanker on 3 July 1984.
The 1981 withdrawn BA Super VC10 fleet had been assessed and six had to be scrapped due to very high hours and corrosion after nearly twenty years’ service and over five years storage in damp conditions. Others (five) were salvageable and they would form the fleet of five K Mk4 RAF machines registered as ZD 235 to ZD 240.
After years in damp, external storage, wrapped in ‘sweating’ plastic, and then coated in oil, the ex-BOAC/BA Super VC10 fleet from Abingdon were in a sorry state and had to be flown over to Filton with their flaps, slats and gear locked down in a series of flights that represented some risk. Much expense was required to deal with the effects of years of static storage in British winter and summer conditions. This included new skins to the top of the structurally vital, centre wing torsion box, a very complicated job because it ‘opens’ up the monocoque of the hull and risks consequent twisting or misalignment. A series of jacks, stays and supports all had to be used to keep the airframes ‘true’.
The conversion of these airframes did not include any fuel tanks being inserted into the fuselages, instead relying on the original aircraft’s wing, body and fin fuel tanks of 17,925 gallons capacity and an air-to-air refuelling ability to perform a more limited task. The first of these conversions to Type K Mk4 was to be ZD 242 (ex G-ASGP) and it first flew on 20 July 1993, but was not in RAF service until April 1994.
The RAF’s original fleet of C Mk1 VC10s were also subjected to a multi-million pound refurbishment programme (carried out by BAE/FR Aviation Hurn), which extended their lives and added the refuelling capability with just two underwing refuelling pods. They lost their all-white livery and emerged in the grey hue that became the later-life RAF VC10 standard. The refurbished C Mk1s became C1.K types.
Brian Trubshaw was the director of the K Mk1-K Mk4 project, and despite cost overruns resulting from unforeseen works and delays, the idea and the outcome was a great success and added over a decade to the VC10s life and benefited the nation’s military ability and its economy. The cost overrun resulted not from bad project management, but from an alleged pre-project initial under-estimate of the work required to the VC10s that had been stored, and the costs and time required – so found a Parliamentary Select Committee that looked at the issue of the bill for £130 million.6
The RAF reformed an original ex-Royal Flying Corps bomber squadron – 101 – to create a VC10/Super VC10 tanker nuclei at Brize Norton – initially termed as a Tanker Training Flight – the ‘TTF’. No. 101 Squadron had last operated the mighty Vulcan in 1982 and been disbanded in 1982. Officially reforming on 1 May 1984, the squadron existed alongside No. 10 Squadron at Brize Norton and made the most of that squadron’s three decades of VC10 operational and maintenance expertise.
With its high T-tail, the VC10 proved a popular in-flight refuelling tanker, as it allowed manoeuvring receiving pilots more room to move and less danger of collision with a low-set tailplane, as found on other tanker types. There was also no exhaust streams or buffet from wing-mounted engines to contend with for pilots flying close up behind the VC10s wing-mounted and under-fuselage refuelling hoses, a major plus for reliable refuelling. However, for the VC10 to refuel from another VC10, care had to be taken, as the receiver’s tail plane and fin could be buffeted by exhaust and airflow from the donating VC10 – the receiver’s high T-tail being in-line and at the nearly same height with the four Conways of the ‘mother’ ship!
Across the Gulf Wars, Afghan, Libyan and other conflicts alongside normal global military deployments, the RAF tanker fleet have racked up an envious accident-free record of service to a number of other nations air forces, as well as to RAF types. The RAF VC10s provided over 25% of the in-flight refuelling for the US Navy during the original Gulf conflict. Of interest, No. 101 Squadron have performed a number VC10-to-VC10 in-flight refuellings that have allowed events such as flying from the UK (Brize Norton) to Perth, Australia with just two in-flight refuelling sessions across a 9,000 mile non-stop routing on a 15 hour 53 minute flight. The weekly VC10 service to the Falkland Islands also provided numerous challenges to the RAF crews, and again, no major accident ever occurred.
Far from providing over a decade’s planned service up to 2000 as planned, the RAF VC10 fleet flew on until 2014. By this time, however, the costs of keeping the Conways maintained and fuelled, and of addressing the fatigue issues of these very hard-worked airframes, with their flight cycles beyond original design life, begun to become prohibitive. Major expenses, such as wing-skin, fuselage panel and structural section replacement have, quite expectedly, had to be performed.
No. 10 Squadron operated its VC10s for an astonishing thirty-nine years.
RAF VC10 Finale
After forty-seven years of RAF service, the VC10 made its final air-to-air refuelling operational sortie on 20 September 2013, and retired from service on 25 September 2013. Two VC10s, ZA147 and ZA150, flew together in a sortie that involved refuelling one VC10 from the other. The captain of ZA147 was Squadron Leader Jess Gannon. The VC10 officially had its last flight on 25 September, before landing at Bruntingthorpe airfield at 1602hrs after two very noisy goarounds, when ZA 147 (ex-5H-MMT) shut the log book on forty-seven years of RAF service and fifty-one point three years of total VC10 flight.
So ended the VC10’s incredible story in the sky. Who could have predicted back at Brooklands in 1958 that the Valiant, the V1000 and the Vanjet, could have led to such a meaningful contribution by one airframe design? Gladly, eight intact complete airframes have made their ways to various museums, and nose and forward fuselage sections litter the landscape.