Trident 3 wing cracks...
The big boss was once asked about cross wing landing techniques...which one did he recommend of the two....reply was fly it into the runway ...the undercarriage is strong enough....what was christened "Charlie's tent peg landing technique"...IMHO...there lies the problem
Autothrottle....BEA had this strange idea that the flying pilot shouldn't operate his own throttles and that Auto-throttle must be used when available (except eng out)....after I left and some "notable aviators" had retired the procedure was changed.
There is one gentleman who has operated the Vanguard, VC10 and concorde as well as doing a few circuits in a T1...he told me that the crew were amazed that he could handle his own throttles.
Concorde...BOAC had to get exemption from the CAA to operate out of JFK as the procedure called for a turn below 500ft which was forbidden. The rule was apparently introduced by Dai Davies who didn't cope very well with a departure procedure with an early turn on the Trident sim.
The Super VC 10 was a beautiful aircraft...go to Duxford and have a look into the cockpit (there is a Trident and a Concorde there to)...gigantic and with our own loo although it wasn't always available as on one trip someone bought a large cane swinging chair in Bangkok as Sylvia Crystal played in in the first Emmanuelle Film...happy memories (for the youngsters amongst you the first soft porn film in 1976).
I was lucky enough to fly both the Trident two and the Super VC 10...Both were great aircraft but it was the operation of the former that let it down...but one has to remember that the RAF was killing 100s of aircrew at that time and it took a brave man or a fool to open his mouth to say things were wrong in the 70s...sadly we stalled three gas turbine powered airliners..