TheOddOne,
I was the Television Director shooting the footage of the VC10 when it landed at Brooklands in the 1980s. We had 4 cameras located around the airfield, in case there was a big bang! The landing was kept very hush, hush, to stop the airfield being inundated with people.
In the event, the VC10 (which took off from Heathrow 10 minutes earlier), did about three practice landings, before it made the final approach. As a pilot, I was convinced that it would finish its landing run on the Waterloo railway line!
In the event it came over the houses, which were built on the end of the runway, and stopped with about a quarter of a mile of runway left!
I interviewed the captain after they disembarked and he said that he could have made the landing even shorter if he had needed to.
I believe I still have the footage of at least two of the cameras, including the captain's interview.
Interestingly, we had been commissioned to shoot the event by Trafalgar House (a long defunct company) and in the event (we were the only film crew at the event) Brooklands told us that they didn't want any of the footage. What a waste.
