Ref: VC10 deep stall - Chris- I was not saying the Ten could not or would not deep stall, what I was saying- clumsily it seems- was that unlike other t tailers, no VC0 airframe has ever been lost due- repeat due to a deep stall.
Yes it would stall, and the protective systems then stepped in to stop that stall becoming the deep or super stall.
Of note, such was the excellence of the aerofoil perfromance that the standard VC10 exhibited nose drop at the stall- remarkable for a rear cg, rear pressure biased, T tailed airframe.
EAA gave up the full stall test after several close calls and after persuading the Kenyan DCA that an actual stall was over kill- so to speak.
With its long front fuselage moment arm and very heavy rear end, it is remarkable that the VC10 was so docile at the stall - the ILushyin 62 copy certainly was not!
I worked closely with B. Trubshaw and he told me once flew a VC10 at the very edge fo the stall envelope after an elevator hinge bolt broke - cited in his book -in fact he ordered a bail out and Mayday but that proved imposible so he palmed the VC10 down to safe but hairy landing. BOAC crawled all voer that one.
But he confirmed that that very high tail and very big elevator sweep back saved the VC10 from being a T tail deep stall dipper. Although the 727 has lost an airframe to the dreaded deep stall, that aircraft too had a very high tail and very big sweepback on the empenage - hence its amazing performance- allied to the big slat parasol wing.
The dear old trident was frankly, handicapped by its stub tail adn low power. The Late Grp Cpt John Cunningham told me of a day when he got the Trident nose too high and very very nearly lost his life. It took about 10,000 feet to coem down- nasty- very nasty.
Does anyone remember when Davies of the ARB had a Standard VC10 spin during a flight test and it was discovered that one of the rubber seals on the wing fence was missing on one wing only? Apparrently BOAC discovered 4 others in the fleet with the same problem...
One of my neighbours was Capt Ronald Ballantine- ex Imperial, RAF and
SVC10 senior Captain. He told interesting stories.