Air Test
I was an engine fitter on the Belfast 'Major' servicing team based at Abingdon in the early to mid seventies. I remember the aircraft was so big (or the hangar so small) that we had to fit a hydraulic jig to the nose wheel assembly and lift the nose of the aircraft to lower the tail sufficiently to get it into the hangar. At the completion of the Major, an air test was flown to set-up the engine bleed valves and it had to be flown with the cockpit escape hatch open to allow the cables which were bodge taped from each engine, along the wings, down the fuselage and into the cockpit. I was newly out of Brat school and assumed this was normal practice.
I'm not sure if memory serves correctly but I think there was a push at one point to get all ten aircraft airborne for a photo for Flight magazine or the RAF news. Can anyone confirm and if so can anyone post the picture?