Vickers VC-10
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The VC-10 airliner was designed and built by Vickers in the 1960s. Only 57 were produced and the VC-10 is considered to be another failure of the British aerospace industry to deliver aircraft that were interesting to any companies other than their national airline and allied operators. Today a few VC-10s are still in service as aerial refueling and trooping aircraft with the RAF, after conversion in the 1980s. Despite its lack of commercial success, many consider it to be a particularly elegant, even beautiful design.
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History
Vickers Armstrong had been working in-house in the early 1950s on a project known as Type 1000, essentially a civilian version of their Valiant V-bomber with enough range to cross the Atlantic. At this point the transatlantic routes were being served by piston-powered aircraft such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-7C, although the Bristol Britannia turboprop appeared likely to shorten the flight times somewhat. The only jet airliner to see service by this point was the De Havilland Comet, but it had too short a range to cross the Atlantic. A jet-powered aircraft with the range of the Britannia would cut several hours off the flight time, but jet engines of that era had fuel consumption high enough to make the Atlantic crossing impractical except in a much larger aircraft.
BOAC then offered a tender for a new airliner to replace their Comets then in service, but able to operate from more constrained airports on their many empire routes. Vickers offered a version of the Type 1000 as the VC-7 (VC for Vickers Civil), carrying up to 120 passengers in two rows on either side of a central aisle. Almost at the same time the RAF expessed interest in the Type 1000 as a long-range strategic transport, and ordered six converted to freighter configuration with a large cargo door. Work began on a prototype freighter, but the order was later cancelled in 1955 and the project stalled.
BOAC meanwhile was still in need of a long-range aircraft, and put in an order for 15 Boeing 707s in 1956, which had range/passenger numbers very similar to the original VC-7 design. Had the RAF order not been cancelled, it is likely that the VC-7 would have been used in this role instead of the 707s, as they would have been available sooner.
The Boeing 707 was fine for the major transatlantic routes between major airports like Heathrow and New York, but was at this stage an imperfect aircraft. The main concern was that it was underpowered and thus required very long runways in order to take off. In addition the lack of power made it very difficult to get airborne in lower air densities, the so-called "hot and high" conditions. For this reason the 707 would not be able to serve on many of BOAC's "empire" routes, notably between Karachi and Singapore, and also fly a full load from high-altitude fields like Kano or Nairobi. In addition the 707 required considerable ground-support equipment in order to supply power when loading, as well as to start its engines, equipment that was lacking at the vast majority of smaller airports. For all these reasons the 707 was well suited to high-volume routes, but left the market for smaller airports unserved.
Several companies saw the need for a better performing aircraft for these roles, with De Havilland offering their DH.118 design, and Handley Page their HP.97. However Vickers' work on their VC-7 put them in the lead, and after carefully considering the routes, they offered a redesign as the VC-10. The major differences were an oversized wing equipped with huge fowler flaps for much improved take-off distance, moving the engines to the rear to clean up the wings and reduce cabin noise, and the addition of more powerful Rolls-Royce Avon engines to provide enough power for "hot and high" operations. The plane was also slightly longer than the original, offering seating for 135 passengers in a two-class layout. Although there was some concern about the design inside BOAC over operational costs, the airline eventually placed an order for 25.
Vickers calculated that it would need to sell 80 VC-10s to make production viable, at about £1.75 million per aircraft. With BOAC taking only 25, another 55 needed to be sold to other operators. Vickers then offered a slightly smaller version to BEA for their longer European routes like London-Athens, the VC-11. However BEA turned them down in favour of a custom-designed British aircraft, later delivered as the De Havilland Trident. Vickers then re-worked the production plans to be able to break-even at only 35 aircraft at £1.5 million per aircraft, re-using jigs from the Vanguard. At this point BOAC raised their order to 35 aircraft, placing it on January 14, 1958, with options for a further 20 examples, all with a smaller 109-seat interior with more first-class seating. With a single customer now providing a break-even schedule, production jigs were set up, abandoning the original plan to re-use the Vanguard lines.
BOAC had calculated that the 707 cost of moving each passenger was £4.10 per mile (£2.55/km), while the VC-10 would cost £4.24/mile (£2.63/km). Although the difference was fairly small, it had caused them serious concern, to the point of considering cancelling their orders in favour of the 707. This point was not lost on Vickers, who started the design of what would become the Super 200, before the first of the original version had even started production. The major differences were much higher-rated Rolls-Royce Conway engines than the original, which had since switched to Conways as well, and a fuselage stretch of 28 feet (8.5 m) to raise the passenger seating to 212, larger even than the 707, and thereby reducing operational costs.
By January 1960, Vickers was having financial troubles and was becoming concerned it would not be able to deliver the original 35 without a loss. They offered to sell 10 of the Super 200s to BOAC for £2.7 million each, but BOAC wasn't convinced they needed 35 VC-10s, let alone another 10. Finally the government stepped in and the order was placed on June 23, 1960. BOAC continued to express doubts however, this time feeling that they would be unable to fill all 200 seats, and so the design was shortened to a 13 foot (4 m) stretch and became the Super VC-10 (Type 1150), the original design retroactively becoming the Standard VC-10 (Type 1100).
Not content with the situation, BOAC changed its order in May 1961, reversing the mix to purchase 15 Standards and 35 Supers, with eight of the Supers being a new combi configuration with a large cargo door and stronger floor. The order was changed again in December to 12 Standards, and by the time deliveries were ready to start in 1964, airline growth had slowed and BOAC wanted to reduce the order to only seven Supers. In May the government stepped in again, placing an order for VC-10s to operate as military transports, thereby taking up the slack in the production run.VC10FlightDeck.jpg
The prototype Standard, G-ARTA, rolled out of the production hall at Weybridge on April 15, 1962. After two months of ground, engine and taxi tests, it flew for the first time on June 29, and was soon flown to Wisley for further testing. By the end of the year two more had been delivered to Wisley, and a serious problem with drag became known. The design was then modified with the addition of Kuchemann wingtips and "beaver tail" engine nacelle fairings, which lengthened the testing process. The test program was then changed to allow the VC-10s to visit foreign airports, including Nairobi, Khartoum, Rome, Kano, Aden, Salisbury and Beirut. One was also used for trans-Atlantic testing, and flew to Montreal on February 8, 1964. By this point seven of the original 12 Standards were complete, and the line was already gearing up for the introduction of the Super. A Certificate of Airworthiness was finally awarded on April 22, 1964, but by this time BOAC had already trained its crews and took delivery of the aircraft that day. The first commercial flight, to Lagos, took place on April 29.. By the end of 1964 all the Standards had been delivered, although Vickers (by this point part of BAC), retained one for their own testing. Supers followed only a month later, with the first flight on May 7, 1964. As the Super was really just a modified Standard, testing was shorter and the Certificate of Airworthiness was awarded in March 1965, with commercial service starting on April 1.
Several other operators had ordered VC-10s by this point. Ghana Airways placed an order for three aircraft in January 1961, two fitted with a cargo door as combi aircraft, known as Type 1102. The first was delivered in November 1964, the second in May 1965, but they cancelled their order for the third. British United Airways, Freddie Laker's airline, ordered two combi versions (Type 1103) in 196, which they received in October 1964. BOAC then ceased VC-10 operations to South America, which BUA then applied to take over. BUA purchased Ghana's expected third plane in July 1965, and a fourth example in 1969. Ghana also leased one of their aircraft to Middle East Airlines, although this was blown up at Beirut in an Israeli commando raid in December 1968. MEA also operated the prototype Vickers had kept until 1965. Nigeria Airways also planned to purchase two, but had to cancel their order for financial reasons, and later leased one of BOAC's aircraft instead.
RAF_VC10.JPG
The RAF also ordered the VC-10 after placing Specification 239 in 1960 for a strategic transport, which the Air Ministry placed with Vickers in 1961 for five aircraft. This version was a combination of the basic Standard-combi airframe with the larger wings from the Super, improving its short-field performance even further. They also included a probe on the nose for in-flight refuelling, which could be detached when not used. The order was later added to with an additional six in 1963, and then taking over the three that BOAC had cancelled in 1964. The first RAF plane, known to them as VC-10 C.1, was delivered for testing on November 26, 1965, with deliveries to the RAF beginning in December 1966 and ending in August 1968.
The last VC-10 built was an East African Airways Super, delivered in February 1970. The production line then shut down after a total of 54 airframes had been built. The primary reason for this early shutdown of what was clearly an excellent design was, paradoxically, the demand for jet airliners. With the 707 and Douglas DC-8 unable to operate from many of the world's smaller airports, it seemed the VC-10 would be in high demand. Instead the demand was addressed in an obvious fashion Vickers hadn't considered; many of these airports simply lengthened runways.
BOAC started to replace their Supers on transatlantic flights in the early 1970s, using them to displace Standards. By 1974 most Standards were no longer in use, although BOAC leased them to a number of operators. Retirement of their Supers began in April 1980 with the widespread introduction of the Boeing 747, but they continued to be used on less travelled transatlantic routes until late in the year, and on some European routes until 1981. They had been looking for a buyer for the fleet for some time at this point, and handed them to the RAF in May. The last commercial flight of a VC-10 took place in July 1987.
Possible Soviet industrial espionage
Air_Koryo_IL-62M_P-881.JPG
The Ilyushin Il-62 is a long range Soviet civil airliner, which first flew in 1963 and entered service with Aeroflot in 1967. It was developed at the same time as the Vickers VC-10, to which it bears a very close resemblance - industrial espionage was widely suspected at the time, but has never been proved.
RAF Service
In 1978 the RAF started to investigate converting their VC-10s C1s to the air-refuelling role. British Aerospace was contracted to convert nine to start with. Eventually 13 of 14 C1s were converted, with the fourteenth leased to Rolls-Royce plc for flight testing of their RB211 turbofan. A further 39 surplus airline aircraft were acquired, some being converted, others being stored for later conversion (13 eventually converted,) and still others being used for parts for the flying examples.
Today all surviving airworthy VC-10s serve as tanker/transports with No. 10 and No. 101 Squadrons at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire and No. 1312 Flight at RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands, making the RAF the sole and final operator of the VC-10. Preserved aircraft can be seen at Weybridge and at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England.
The VC10 and Lockheed Tristar will be replaced in RAF service by the Airbus A330 MRTT - under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft Project.
Variants
- 1100 one prototype, later converted to Type 1109
- 1101 BOAC Standards, 35 ordered but 12 built
- 1102 Ghana Airways Standard-combis, 3 built (one redesignated 1103)
- 1103 BUA Standard-combi, two built, one 1102 renamed
- 1104 Nigeria Airways Standards, two ordered, none built
- 1106 RAF C.1, 14 built
- 1151 BOAC Supers, 22 ordered, 17 built
- 1152 BOAC Super-combi, 13 ordered, none built
- 1154 East African Airways Supers, five built
Specifications (Model 1101)
General Characteristics
- Crew: 3 + 3 stewards
- Capacity: 151 passengers
- Length: 158 ft 8 in (48.36 m)
- Wingspan: 146 ft 2 in (44.55 m)
- Height: 39 ft 6 in (12.04 m)
- Wing area: 2,851 ft² (264.9 m²)
- Empty: 139,505 lb (63,278 kg)
- Loaded: lb ( kg)
- Maximum takeoff: 312,000 lb (141,520 kg)
- Powerplant: 4x Rolls-Royce Conway Mk 540, 21,000 lbf (93 kN) thrust each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 580 mph (933 km/h)
- Range: 5,850 miles (9,412 km)
- Service ceiling: 38,000 ft (11,580 m)
- Rate of climb: ft/min ( m/min)
- Wing loading: lb/ft² ( kg/m²)
- Thrust-to-weight:
References
- Henderson, Scott (1998): Silent Swift Superb: The Story of the Vickers VC10. Scoval Publishing. ISBN 1902236025
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