I remember going to Marham after BrizeNorton - where, If a VC10 was taking off, you had no doubt it was going to get airborne. My first glimpse of a Victor 1 tanker moving on the runway was framed by a couple of hangars. The thing seemed to be moving at constant speed. So I went out of the airfield side. to watch a take off. Again the beast seemed to move without accearation down the runway - and I wondered if I was about to witness an accident. At the last momeet there was a bit of a lurch , and there was flight - of sorts. The tanker seemed to follow the curvature of the earth until, a long way out, it climbed away. It struck me that a Victor K1 with full fuel load was not a place to be if there were an engine failure on take off - but perhaps an ex K1 aircrew could advise on that. I guess a fully-loaded B1 would have been in the same situation. Fortunately by that time the Sapphire was pretty reliable.
Aha! Cross-posted with Pontius. Sorry - got interrupted, by Senior Management here, mid post composition
