Vickers VC10

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Vickers VC10
The Vickers VC10 prototype G-ARTA first flew in 1962 in BOAC colours
Type Jet Airliner
Manufacturer Vickers
Designed by George Edwards
Maiden flight 29 June 1962
Introduced BOAC, 29 April 1964
Status Active
Primary users Royal Air Force
BOAC
British Airways
British United Airways
Ghana Airways
East African Airways
Produced 1962 — 1970
Number built 54
Unit cost £1.75 million[citation needed]

The Vickers VC10 is a British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports.

Today a handful of these aircraft are still in service as aerial refueling and transport aircraft with the RAF. Despite the VC10's lack of commercial success, many consider it to be a particularly elegant and even beautiful design. With four Rolls-Royce Conway engines grouped in pairs at the back it is rather loud by modern standards, though for its time it was not and was regarded by passengers as being quiet and comfortable, something the original operator, BOAC, was keen to trumpet, describing it as "triumphantly swift, silent, serene". "Hush Power" was a motto used by BOAC to advertise these aircraft.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Political and aviation background

Though privately owned, Britain's aviation industry had de facto been managed by its largest client, the state, in peace and particularly during the Second World War, when it was turned over to war materiel, and production of transport and passenger aircraft was curtailed in favour of bombers. During the war, in 1943, the Brabazon Committee ushered even tighter command economy-style principles into the industry by specifying a number of different types of airliners that would be required for the post-War years. However, because it assumed that US technological leadership in heavy bombers would translate into leadership in long range airliners, at the time of the Brabazon Committee, the British government conceded in principle that its industry may have to cede the long range market to US makers.

By the late 1950s, the government decreed that the industry should consolidate. In consequence, by 1959 only two engine makers were left: Rolls-Royce and Bristol-Siddeley. In 1960, the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) encompassed Vickers, Bristol, and English Electric's aviation interests, Hawker-Siddeley built on de Havilland's heavy aircraft experience, and Westland consolidated helicopter manufacture. In 1977 BAC and Hawker-Siddeley (by then also including Avro) merged along with Handley Page to form British Aerospace.

[edit] BOAC background

The British government also controlled the airline industry. Apart from very tight route licensing for private airlines, this involved direct ownership of the newly established BOAC long range and BEA short and medium range airlines. They acted as government instruments first and commercial entities second. Thus, BOAC served British Empire destinations across Southern Asia and Africa: the "Medium-Range Empire routes" (MRE). Many of them were to remote and less-developed areas. Most were commercially unattractive, but all were politically, strategically and socially important.

As had been the case for its interwar predecessor, Imperial Airways, BOAC invariably had to operate British-designed and built, or at least British-powered aircraft, with procurement bills paid by the Ministry of Supply. All these aircraft were either unsafe, delayed, uncompetitive, or had all of these defects combined. The Canadair DC-4M was uneconomical, as was the Hermes. The Comet I suffered crashes (due to metal fatigue) and was removed from service, and the Britannia was years late entering service. Though not operated by BOAC, the Tudor also suffered crashes which forced the closure of quasi-private British South American Airways. This strained relations between BOAC and indigenous aircraft makers.

[edit] Vickers and Rolls-Royce background

In the early 1950s, Vickers-Armstrongs designed the Type 1000 (V.1000): a military troop/freight development of the Valiant V-bomber with trans-Atlantic range. At this point, Atlantic routes were flown by slow aircraft and a jet would have cut hours off the flight. The only jet airliner to have seen service by then was the Comet I, whose range was too short for the Atlantic.

As the RAF ordered six V.1000 strategic troop/freight transports, Vickers proposed a 120-seat airliner version known as the V.C.7 (the seventh civil design by Vickers). The government agreed to fund development and work began on a prototype. However, the RAF order was cancelled in a 1955 round of defence cuts, and the project ended.

Rolls-Royce repeatedly adapted its V-bomber Conway by-pass engine to suit the V.1000 as the airframe weight grew, also "civilianising" it for the V.C.7. However, the engine maker was unconvinced of the success of the Vickers designs, turning its attention to getting the Conway onto the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8. In the next two decades, Rolls-Royce courted US airliner makers and lobbied for the complete cessation of British airliner production, which was providing minor but irritating competition to the Americans. In Rolls-Royce's view, Britain had forfeited its chances with the Tudor, Hermes, Comet and Britannia; for the sake of the Special Relationship, it had to concentrate on engine making as the only viable part of its civil aviation design and manufacturing sector.

[edit] BOAC reenters the jet age

Though BOAC had ordered modified Comet 4s, it saw the type as intermediate (the new Comet served the carrier for well under a decade). In 1956, BOAC declared its direction for the future when it ordered 15 Boeing 707s. These, however, were both oversized and underpowered for BOAC's MRE routes. MRE included destinations with "hot and high" airports: those at high temperatures and elevations which reduced aircraft performance. For this reason, the early 707 that BOAC had ordered was unsuitable for MRE routes, notably between Karachi and Singapore, and could not lift a full load from high-altitude airports like Kano or Nairobi. This seemed to inject new life into the MRE requirement.

Several companies pitched for the MRE fleet. De Havilland offered the DH.118, a development of the Comet 5 project, while Handley Page proposed the HP.97, based on their V-bomber, the Victor. After carefully considering the routes, Vickers offered the VC10.

[edit] The VC10 concept

The VC10 was an entirely new design and bore no relation to the V.C.7 other than having the same Conway engines. It had a generous wing equipped with full span Fowler flaps for good take-off and climb performance, and its engines were at the rear, giving an efficient clean wing and reduced cabin noise. Technological breakthroughs included structural parts milled from solid blocks rather than being assembled from pieces of profiled sheet metal. The entire airframe was to be carefully coated against corrosion. Planned flightdeck technology was extremely advanced, with a quadruplicated automatic flight control system (a "super autopilot") envisaged to enable fully automatic zero-visibility landings. Capacity was up to 135 passengers in a two-class configuration. Vickers designer Sir George Edwards is said to have stated that this was the sole route he could have taken unless he was to reinvent the 707. Despite very serious misgivings on operating cost, BOAC was pressured by the government to order 25 aircraft.

Vickers calculated that it would need to sell 80 VC10s at about £1.75 million each to break even. With BOAC taking only 25, another 55 remained to be sold. Vickers offered a smaller version (the VC11) to BEA for longer routes like those to Athens and Beirut, but this was rejected in favour of the Hawker-Siddeley Trident. (In retrospect, such a low break-even figure was unrealistic, especially with the expensive research and development involved in the design. Conventional logic at the time dictated that no fewer than 300 aircraft would have had to be sold to cover all the research, development, testing, certification and construction costs.)

[edit] Uncertainty and indecision

Vickers revamped its production plans to try to break even with only 35 sales at £1.5 million each, re-using jigs from the Vickers Vanguard. On 14 January 1958 BOAC increased its order to 35, with optionals for a further 20 aircraft, all with smaller 109-seat interiors and more first-class seating. With orders from a single customer giving an expected break even, the use of the Vanguard jigs was abandoned and new production jigs made.

Internally, BOAC had calculated that the 707 cost £4.10 per passenger mile, while the VC10 would cost £4.24. This information was leaked and was subsequently credited with the loss of several foreign orders. The large difference caused growing concern and calls to cancel the VC10 orders in favour of the 707. The VC10 was rescued by the British government. In order to offer a more economical product, Vickers began work on the Super 200 development of the VC10. Its main differences were more powerful Conway engines and a 28 feet (8.1 m) longer fuselage offering up to 212 seats: 23 more than the Boeing 707-320 series.

By January 1960, Vickers was experiencing financial difficulties and was concerned that it would not be able to deliver the original 35 VC10s without making a loss. It offered to sell ten Super 200s to BOAC at £2.7 million each, only to find that BOAC was unconvinced it had a role for the already ordered 35 VC10s. The government intervened again on Vickers' behalf, with an order for Super 200s placed on 23 June 1960. BOAC doubts continued, this time centred on the airline's ability to fill all 200 seats. The Super 200 was accordingly cut down to a 13 ft (3.9 m) stretch to the final Super VC10 (Type 1150), the original design retrospectively becoming the Standard VC10 (Type 1100).

As allowed in its contracts with Vickers, in May 1961 BOAC amended its order to 15 Standard and 35 Super VC10s, eight of the Supers having a new combi configuration with a large cargo door and stronger floor. The order was changed again in December to 12 Standards. By the time deliveries were ready to begin in 1964, airline growth had slowed and BOAC wanted to cut its order to seven Supers. In May the government intervened, placing an order for VC10s to operate as military transports, absorbing the overproduction.

The lengthy political manoeuvring surrounding the VC10 was well publicised and did much to erode market confidence in the type. Its history to that date had been something of a see-saw, with the government promoting it and an increasingly unwilling national airline hoping it would go away. This culminated in a furious public political scandal when BOAC chairman Gerald d'Erlanger and managing director Sir Basil Smallpeice resigned over the issue of whether the national airline was a profit-making company or an automatic sponsor of indigenous aircraft designs; the two (with Smallpeice later an ardent supporter of the Margaret Thatcher premiership) defended the former opinion. They were widely supported within BOAC, whose staff felt the VC10 was foisted on them purely to boost employment figures, and who no longer had confidence in British aircraft makers. BOAC's incoming chairman Sir Giles Guthrie was also anti-VC10: he proposed that the Vickers programme should be shelved in favour of more 707 orders.

VC10 1151 flightdeck: the VC10 may have had its share of technical problems, but offered excellent ergonomics to its flight crew
Enlarge
VC10 1151 flightdeck: the VC10 may have had its share of technical problems, but offered excellent ergonomics to its flight crew

[edit] Development and production

The prototype Standard, G-ARTA, rolled out of the Weybridge factory on 15 April 1962. After two months of ground, engine and taxi tests, on 29 June it flew to Wisley for further testing. By the end of the year, two more had been flown to Wisley. A serious problem with drag had appeared by then. To cure it, Kuchemann wingtips and "beaver tail" engine nacelle fairings were added and tested. Along with the rework of the base rudder segment (its scythe shape was replaced by an angular design with an endplate for greater control effectiveness), this lengthened testing. The certification programme included visits to Nairobi, Khartoum, Rome, Kano, Aden, Salisbury and Beirut. A VC10 flew across the Atlantic to Montreal on 8 February 1964.

By this point seven of the original 12 Standards were complete, and the production line was preparing for the Supers. A Certificate of Airworthiness was awarded on 22 April 1964. By the end of 1964 all the production Standards had been delivered, with Vickers (by this point part of the BAC) retaining the prototype.

Super VC10s followed a month later, with the first flight on 7 May 1964. Although the Super was ostensibly a minor development of the Standard with an extra fuel tank in the fin, testing was prolonged by the need to move each engine pair 11 inches (27cm) outboard. This major redesign was needed to resolve tailplane buffeting and fatigue issues due to thrust reverser operation. The two inboard engines could have thrust reversers installed at last, matching the 707. (Military VC10s also had this engine arrangement.) The Certificate of Airworthiness was awarded in March 1965.

Later VC10 design developments included testing the large main deck freight door and new wing leading edges featuring a part-drooped four per cent chord extension over the inboard two thirds, and a drooped extended-chord wingtip which allowed more economical higher cruising heights. (This mimicked the 1961 aerodynamics of the similar-looking but significantly different Il-62.) Further developments were proposed, including freighter versions. Effort was focused on getting a BOAC order for a 250-seat "VC10 Superb." This was a move away from the VC10's initial MRE role and into the area targeted by Douglas with the DC-8 Super Sixties. Unlike the Douglas machine, the VC10 would have needed an entirely new double-deck fuselage, and this raised emergency escape concerns. The design failed to attract orders.

[edit] Sales and airline service

BOAC took delivery of its first VC10 on the day it received its Certificate of Airworthiness. The first commercial flight, to Lagos, was on 29 April. Super VC10 services started on 1 April 1965. Operational experience soon resulted in the deletion of the inboard thrust reversers due to continued tailplane buffeting despite the engine repositioning.

The VC10 became an immensely popular aircraft in the BOAC fleet, both with passengers and crew. Passengers would actively choose the aircraft over others for their flights, resulting in VC10 flights having higher load factors than the 707. This translated into higher profits for the airline, invalidating the original claims of higher cost where passenger appeal wasn't taken into account.

Ghana Airways ordered three VC10s in January 1961. Two were to be fitted with a cargo door and were known as Type 1102s. The first was delivered in November 1964 and the second in May 1965; the third was cancelled. British United Airways (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, and added a fourth example in 1969. Ghana Airways also leased one of their aircraft to Tayaran Assharq Alawsat (Middle East Airlines; MEA); this was destroyed at Beirut during an Israeli raid in December 1968. MEA also operated the prototype aircraft that Vickers had kept until 1965, leased from Freddie (later Sir) Laker's eponymous charter airline. Nigeria Airways planned to buy two VC10s but had to cancel the order for financial reasons; it later leased a BOAC aircraft.

The last VC10 built was an East African Airways Super, delivered in February 1970. The production line then closed, with 54 airframes built. Airline demand for the 707 and Douglas DC-8, with their superior operating economics, encouraged many of the world's smaller airports to extend their runways, thus eliminating the VC10's main advantage.

Marketing overtures for the VC10 were also made elsewhere, particularly in Mexico, Argentina, the Lebanon, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. In line with the VC10's state-led background, these tended to be fronted by British cabinet figures from the Harold Wilson era such as John Stonehouse and Tony Benn. (In reminiscences, some of these figures have claimed that BOAC staff actively sabotaged VC10 marketing by leaking confidential documents relating to the type's fuel consumption.) The final serious enquiry for VC10s came from Chinese state airline Zhōngguó Mínyòng (CAAC) in 1971 and was confirmed in 1972. But by then the production equipment had been broken up.

BOAC's successor British Airways began retiring its Supers from Atlantic flights as early as 1974, mainly due to the 1973 oil crisis, using them to displace Standards. As the Standards were retired in turn, British Airways leased some to Tayaran AlKhalij (Gulf Air). Three were traded in to Boeing as part payment on new aircraft, and Boeing scrapped them at Heathrow. Retirement of the Super VC10 began in April 1980, but use continued on less travelled routes until 1981. After failing to sell them, British Airways handed them over to the RAF in May that year. This closed the type's commercial service history, though two machines continued in VIP service for some time.

The VC10 served its intended market for a mere decade and a half. Because it was fully written down and amortised by the 1970s, it could have continued in airline service much longer despite high fuel consumption. However, its high noise levels on departure and approach sealed its fate. Hush kitting the Conways was considered in the late 1970s and rejected on grounds of cost.

Redesignated "VC-10," the RAF VC10s were mostly converted civil machines.
Enlarge
Redesignated "VC-10," the RAF VC10s were mostly converted civil machines.

[edit] RAF service

In 1960, the RAF issued Specification 239 for a strategic transport, placed by the Air Ministry with Vickers in 1961 as an order for five VC10s. The military version was a combination of the Standard combi airframe with the developed wing and Super VC10 engines. It also had a detachable in-flight refuelling nose probe and an auxiliary power unit in the tailcone. The order was increased by an additional six in 1963, plus the three that BOAC had cancelled in 1964. The first RAF machine (known to the service as the VC-10 C Mk. 1, often abbreviated to VC-10 C1), was delivered for testing on 26 November 1965, with deliveries to No. 10 Squadron beginning in December 1966 and ending in August 1968.

In 1978 the RAF contracted British Aerospace to convert five ex-Gulf Air Standard VC10s and four ex-East African Airways Super VC10s as air-to-air refuelling tankers. These were known in service as the VC-10 K2 and VC-10 K3 respectively. In the early 1990s, a further five ex-British Airways Super VC10s were converted to VC-10 K4 tankers. Around the same time, 13 of the 14 C1s were also equipped with refuelling pods and redesignated as VC-10 C1K dual-rôle tanker/transports. (The fourteenth had been leased to Rolls-Royce for flight testing of the RB211 turbofan in 1969 and was later scrapped.). The VC-10 K3 and VC-10 K4 tanker-only aircraft are capable of lifting 78 and 68 tonnes of air-transferrable fuel respectively. The VC-10 is affectionately known in RAF service as the "Vickers FunBus" (a pun on the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus).

Surviving airworthy VC-10 C1Ks, K3s and K4s serve as tanker/transports with No. 101 Squadron at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire and No. 1312 Flight at RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands, making the RAF the VC10's final operator. The VC10 and Lockheed Tristar tanker/transports are due to be replaced in RAF service by the Airbus A330 MRTT under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft Project.

[edit] Variants

  • Vickers V.C.10 Type 1100: prototype; 1 built, (1 converted to Type 1109)
  • BAC VC10 Type 1101: BOAC Standards; up to 35 ordered at various times; 12 built
  • BAC Standard VC10 Type 1102: Ghana Airways' Standard combis; 3 built (1 redesignated Type 1103)
  • BAC Standard VC10 Type 1103: BUA Standard combis; 2 built, (1 redesignated Type 1102)
  • BAC Standard VC10 Type 1104: Nigeria Airways' Standards; two ordered, none built
  • BAC Standard VC10 Type 1106: military transport version for the RAF (RAF designation "VC-10 C. Mk. 1"); 14 built
  • BAC Standard VC10 Type 1109: converted from Type 1100 for lease to Laker Airways
  • BAC Super VC10 Type 1150: generic Super VC10
  • BAC Super VC10 Type 1151: BOAC Supers, up to 22 ordered at various times; 17 built
  • BAC Super VC10 Type 1152: BOAC Super combi; 13 ordered, none built
  • BAC Super VC10 Type 1154: East African Airways' Super combi; 5 built
  • VC-10 C. Mk. 1: RAF designation for the Type 1106; 14 built, 13 converted to VC-10 C. Mk. 1K
  • VC-10 C. Mk. 1K: RAF designation for the transport/tanker aircraft converted from Type 1106 ("VC-10 C. Mk. 1")
  • VC-10 K. Mk. 2: RAF designation for 5 inflight-refuelling tankers converted from Type 1101
  • VC-10 K. Mk. 3: RAF designation for 4 inflight-refuelling tankers converted from Type 1154
  • VC-10 K. Mk. 4: RAF designation for 5 inflight-refueling tankers converted from Type 1151

[edit] Operators

[edit] Military operators

[edit] Preserved examples

[edit] Specifications (Model 1101)

General characteristics

  • Crew: 4 + 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 weight: 139,505 lb (63,278 kg)
  • Loaded weight: lb (kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: 334,878 lb (151,900 kg)
  • Powerplant: 4× Rolls-Royce Conway Mk. 301 , 22,500 lbf (100.1 kN) each

Performance

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Benn, Tony, The Tony Benn Diaries 1940-1990, Arrow, UK, 1996, ISBN 0-09-963411-2
  • Cole, Lance, Vickers VC10, The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury, UK, 2000, ISBN 1-86126-231-0
  • Hedley, Martin, VC-10, Modern Civil Aircraft Series, Ian Allan, UK, 1982, ISBN 0-7110-1214-8
  • Henderson, Scott, Silent, Swift, Superb: the Story of the Vickers VC10, Scoval, UK, ISBN 1-902236-02-5
  • Powell, David, Tony Benn: a Political Life, Continuum Books, 2001, ISBN 0-8264-5699-5
  • Smallpeice, Sir Basil, Of Comets and Queens, Airlife, Shrewsbury, UK, 1981, ISBN 0-906393-10-8
  • The Putnam Aeronautical Review, No.1, March 1989, Putnam, UK

[edit] Related content

 

Comparable aircraft

Designation sequence

Varsity - Viscount - Vickers Type 667 - Valiant - Vanguard - VC10

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