RAF VC-10 in-flight reverse thrust use.
When my tour in Singapore ended in August 1968, my wife and I flew home in an RAF VC-10. Cyprus was one of the stops on the way back, and we landed at Nicosia airport. As we approached Cyprus at altitude, the captain (or someone from the flight deck) made an announcement over the PA system, but the quality of the system wasn't very good, so it wasn't easy to make out what he was saying, but I did catch something about "noise and vibration." After that, the VC-10 went into a steep descent and yes, there was a lot of noise and vibration. My impression was that the flight crew used reverse thrust as an airbrake because we were avoiding some other country's airspace (possibly Egypt's) in order to enter the very limited friendly airspace around Cyprus, hence the steep descent. I've read since then that using reverse thrust in flight is a no-no, but I wonder if anyone has any experience or knowledge of it being used by the RAF VC-10s?