VC-10 in Base hangar for months?

[Coltishall. loved it]

Just been reading the "bent airframes" thread, and it reminded me of a
Ten that was in Base for a very long time. I was on RSS at the time and spent at least a year with a flapper wheel polishing out the corrosion and
replacing many small airframe parts "think the tailplane was replaced also?"
It was circa 87-88
I left while it was still in the hangar, so am now intrigued to the outcome after all these years.
If it did fly again, I'm sure it would have been the lightest and fastest airliner
in the sky after the obvious.
Xv104 rings a bell? But would be happy to be enlightened.

[Saintsman]

If memory serves, all but XR809 (the RB211 test bed) of the C MK1s were converted at Bournemouth into tankers, so XV104 would have certainly flown after '88.

Whilst at Bournemouth, quite a few had major corrosion repairs carried out (the forward keel skins were replaced).

I'm fairly confident that the additional refurbishments that were carried out during the conversions allowed the aircraft to have a longer period in service than they otherwise might have.

[BEagle]

The last time I flew XV104 was on 9 May 2002, doing a couple of check rides on a pair of lucky victims.

By then it was a VC10 C Mk 1K 2-point tanker. However, a few days earlier I did my civil IR Skill Test in the same ac with a CAA IRE .

[1.3VStall]

All the CMk1s had their wing centre section torque box upper surfaces "replanked" under a programme starting in 1989. (Except XR809, which didn't come back into the RAF fleet after the RB211 trials programme).

The jacking/trestling/structural replacement process was developed by BAe using the East African Airways hulk that had sat on tyres on the south side of BZN for a number of years.

The replanking programme was necessary because the aluminium alloy used extensively in the VC10 structure - T2024 - was very fatigue resistant, but it was prone to exfoliation corrosion as it aged. And, as we all know, we kept the VC10 going until it was a well-aged airframe: bless it!

[Exvacert]

It was XV105. I was posted into BZN in 88 to base hangar on what was called the the cat 3 team and for 2 years before i was moved all we did was strip her out, at that time we all thought she would never fly again because of the corrosion.

[edwardspannerhands]

Sounds very like XV103 (Edward Mannock VC). It had come in for it's major but then they found the corrosion problem. IIRC the tail plane didn't get changed because when they opened the crate the replacement was more corroded than the one fitted!
Had the 'dubious pleasure' of being posted to SMF in Base Hangar in Jul 88, onto the team they were re-forming to recover 103 post RSS / CWP. Because it had been in Base Hangar so long and the rumour mill had it written off, LSS had a habit of coming in at night and having bits away without rob paperwork. Made for an interesting rebuild!!

[Coltishall. loved it]

Thanks all for input. Edward I think you have nailed it for me. Thought it was 104 but
103 sounds good and dates ring true. Exva, I’m assuming 105 was prob the next one
in the similar situation. I did speak to someone “not long after I left” I seem to remember about 103
when it was still in the hanger and they said quote: “bits everywhere”
Which in all fairness was the reason all these years down the road why I asked the question.
As I walked out of the hanger for the last time, my thoughts were along the lines
Of: this thing is in so many bits and it’s like a massive jigsaw that will never
Be back together. Obviously I was wrong and the old girls carried on for years.
Who said over engineering was a waste of money.


"Even when I got promoted to 101, we still treated LSS as the scum of the earth " prob a bit jelly belly of their cushy shift patterns"

[Jhieminga]

XV103 soldiered on until January 2001, while '104 and '105 flew until July 2012 and August 2011 respectively. Interesting to hear about the replanking exercise on the C1s, I thought that this had only been done on the K4 tankers that had been stored for several years.