Hi everyone, my latest offering comes in the form of an early proposal for a nuclear missile equipped variant of the ubiquitous VC10, one of several such interesting proposals submitted by the Vickers Corporation and BAC in the early sixties. A bit of background for those interested. The VC10 was seriously looked at for adaption to a variety of roles including ballistic missile carrier, maritime and electronic recon, AEW, and even the worlds largest interceptor!!!.To meet these roles Vickers and BAC proposed using multi role modular aircraft with interchangable noses and fuselages, totally unique at the time. These nuclear equipped aircraft were to have worked alongside then gradually have replaced the V-Bombers in time.
This version the ALBM carrier was based on the Type 1106 variant ,(as used by Transport Command) but had the standard 1100 airliner fuselage matched with the Super's 1150 wings (to take the weight of the Skybolts and which had a more appropriate Mach rating) and uprated Conway Co.43 engines.The nose was heavily re profiled to encase the NBS and H2S systems and tanks were fitted to the extreme wing tips. Up to eight Skybolts could be carried pushing the total payload up to a massive 40,000lbs, this is the main reason that I added a new beefier undercarriage with a lower pressure footprint enabling it to be flown from more RAF airfields.There was also mention of fitting reheat to the Conways, RATO packs or even replacing them altogether with Bristol BS.81 turbofans of 36,000 lbs thrust each.
An impressive way of looking at the strike potential would be to say that it would take 72 Vulcans and 32 Victors to carry a creditable deterrent whereas only 42 VC10's would have been needed to do the same job!
Weapons to have been carried were 8 (or more usually 4) Douglas Skybolts, 4 Z.89's or 6 Bristol X.12's....a truely frightening war load!!!
http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/x...P1090676-1.jpg
http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/x...090683-1-1.jpg
More info on the proposal and pics
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/i...howtopic=57686