Vickers Super VC10 (1965)

BOAC’s Boeing 707s, although bigger and faster than the British Comet 4, proved underpowered to the extent that they could not take off fully laden from ‘hot and high’ airports like Addis Ababa or Nairobi.

In response, Vickers developed the VC10. It had an advanced wing for extra lift, four powerful rear-mounted Rolls Royce Conway turbofan engines  – the first bypass engines go into service in the world – and a strengthened undercarriage to cope with uneven African runways. It met all BOAC’s requirements, but the higher power needed meant that the operating costs were slightly  higher than the 707, and BOAC’s management began to complain publicly before the first aircraft had even been delivered. The ‘Super’ VC10 traded some performance against higher capacity and better economics, and was the biggest jet airliner built in Britain, but the adverse publicity had clearly damaged its image. Eventually 18 Standard VC10s and 22 Supers were built for airlines, and 14 C Mk 1s were supplied to the RAF, making a total of 54 built. Because of the worldwide dominance of the Boeing 707, many high-altitude airports extended their runways to accommodate it, removing the VC10’s main advantage.

BOAC began scheduled flights with the VC10 in March 1964, and a strange thing happened: the load factors on the VC10 were significantly higher than on the 707 fleet. The rear-engined layout made for a quiet cabin and the efficient wings gave a very smooth ride – passengers began to request the VC10 when given the choice. BOAC then advertised the VC10 in glowing terms, with phrases like “Swift, silent, superb”. The contrast between the complaints in the background and the virtues claimed in the advertising is striking.

When the airlines began to phase out the  VC10 in the 1970s, most were converted to tanker and transport aircraft for the RAF and served in many campaigns, including the Falklands, the Gulf Wars and Yugoslavia. The type’s final flights in RAF service were on 20 September 2013 and the last flight of a VC10 was on 25 September from Brize Norton to Bruntingthorpe, to be scrapped.

G-ASGC was built at Weybridge as the third of the Super VC10s ordered by BOAC. Its first flight on 1 January 1965 was a short one to the nearby BAC flight test centre at Wisley. It was officially handed over to the short-lived BOAC Cunard joint venture at Heathrow on 30 April. Four days later it entered service on the North Atlantic route. In 1974 BOAC merged with BEA to become British Airways, and GC was repainted in BA colours. In March 1979 this aircraft flew from New York to Prestwick in five hours one minute – the scheduled time was six hours twenty minutes – a transatlantic record for a subsonic airliner that stood for 41 years. BA began to withdraw its Super VC10s from service in 1979, but some were used on European routes for a time and GC’s last commercial flight was from Amsterdam to London on 22 October 1979. It was donated to Duxford Aviation Society and flown to Duxford on 15 April 1980.