I have heard it said that the VC10 was the fastest airliner flying until Concorde first took to the air - and since 2003 it is again! Does anybody disagree?

The CV990 Coronado held that accolade, I thought.

I thought the Trident was also faster than the VC-10... However the dear old Funbus has outlasted them all, unless any CV-990s are still airworthy?

I think there would be only 2 contenders for potentially airworthy 990's:

N8357C stored at El Paso for some years, which used to regularly run it engines but hasn't for some time apparently. There were moves afoot to save this aircraft from scrapping recently.

EC-BZO - last of the Spantax 990's still stored in a remote corner of Palma. This one looks well negelcted and would probably need plenty of work(i.e. cash)

There's one at Mojave that looks in reasonable condition :

http://www.btinternet.com/~philip.mo...2_201139-1.JPG

There's a beautifully preserved Swissair example at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne, but they would never be persuaded to fly it again!
kostet zuviel geld, gal!

Yes you're right.
The piccie doesn't want to show, but I think you're referring the ex. APSA one that's the oldest surviving 990. Might be possible to get it airworthy but it's been there for many years.

Actually - thinking about it the heavily modified NASA 990 that was retired a few years ago from Shuttle gear testing duty was probably the last 990 to fly, so it's probably the closest of the surviving 990's to airworthy

Getting it to a runway would be the hardest thing, since they floated it to the museum on a barge, minus fin from an airfield across the lake :)

I remember seeing that Coronado at Mojave in 1999, and some of the TWA 880s were still there too. Passed through El Paso the following year coutesy Southwest, but don't recall one there. Blimey, we're well off topic now.

I lived in Kenya (aged 8) at the time of the accident at Addis... a family friend was one of the victims, on her way home to London on a shopping trip I think. I'm glad I didn't know (or understand) the full circumstances of the crash at the time...

It's also missing the outboard sections of the wings, and possibly one or two other somewhat vital parts !

Just to add another personal note on the Addis crash. I also lived in Kenya at the time and remember it as a 12 year old due to fly out from Nairobi soon afterwards. It was one of the flights used by parents to fly their children back to UK for school, known to many of us as 'Lollipop' flights. Many of my contemporaries where on that flight. I recall accounts of some very brave individuals amongst the survivors who did great things to save some of the children.

I do not recall the source of the information but I remember reading that a loading hook had fallen off the previously departing flight. The VC10 hit it and suffered tyre loss (I thought it was the starboard undercarriage), followed by failure of the starboard engines due to debris ingestion. It may have been a report that was published in the Daily Nation or The (East African) Standard.

Survivor
 

My grand-aunt told me today about this accident (so I googled it and found this page). Her husband was on the plane and survived the crash. He was in the middle of the plane and it was cut off a few rows in front of him, allowing him to escape. Must have been horrible as many children in the rear of the plane burnt to death...

I can remember reading in an issue of the Guiness book of records that the Trident 2 was the fastest airliner. There were a couple ofl others that come to what I laughingly refer to as my mind. It listed the Canberra PR9 as the RAF's fastest non-afterburning jet and the Pegasus as the RAF's most powerful non afterburning jet.
Sorry, topic wander - it's me age.

Flashback time!

Mention of the CV-990 reminded me of "Top Trumps" (remember the cards?).
When I was at boarding school we used to play aviation Top Trumps for hours at weekends. CV-990 was a good card to have! From memory only Concorde and the TU144(?) beat it in terms of top speed.

The VC-10 beat them all for beauty though:ok:

Oh how simple life was then!

Convair 990 :

I don't know whether the claimed Mach 0.91 speed of the Cv990 is the design speed or what it actually achieved, which was less. Failure to come up to design spec was one of the reasons behind its failure.

Looking at an American Airlines timetable for 1965, when it was in full operation alongside a large 707 fleet and the first 727s, it is apparent that on sectors where different types are scheduled there is no difference in timetable time allowed between the Convair and its Boeing counterparts. Even the 727 kept up with it on routes like New York to Chicago.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is how much times have expanded on these routes nowadays; New York to Chicago is around 2 hrs 00 min by all types (one 707 in 1 hour 57 min), whereas today in the American timetable the standard allowance is 2 hrs 40 min. What with much shorter turnround times in the old days as well, those 1965 jets were off the gate again and on their way on westward by the time current types would be arriving.

I was informed that BOAC used to cruire the VC10 at .86 to .88 I was told. Fast, but others were up there as well. The 747 typically cruises at .86.

pjac
 

The NASA 990 was purchased from Garuda. An American crew test flew the 'plane when it came out of the hangar at Jakarta-then flew it to Hong Kong/HAECO to have the resultants snags of the machine attended to, prior to flying it back to the States.

5X-UVA...

I recall sitting on the Brooklands Racetrack embankment (Weybridge) watching her first engine runs.

Lunchtime at Brooklands Technical College...a quick walk down to the river, scamble up the embankment to get a view of the airfield, eat sandwiches, wait for "Bournemouth Belle" to scurry past, then dash back in time for afternoon lectures...happy days!

I see that this thread has resurfaced. I have updated the information regarding this accident on my site based on the aforementioned ICAO digest:
Incidents and Accidents

5X-UVA
 

A personal note. I always felt an affinity for UVA as I was fortunate enough to be at Brooklands when she took off on her maiden flight to Wisley in 1966. Somewhere under a vast pile of my lifes's collection of bits and pieces is my old reggie spotting log book with the exact date. One day I'll dig it out.

BAC used to do guided factory tours of their adjoining Weybridge works on Saturday mornings which you could go on for free if you wrote a letter showing interest and, on one of my my days (I went twice as I found it so interesting), UVA's maiden take off was a bonus highlight. The tour was fascinating in itself as VC10s (mainly the RAF ones from the part cancelled BOAC order if I recall) plus Concorde fuselage sections were in production there at the time.

However, the sight and sound (aaahh Conways!) of 5X-UVA, resplendent in that beautiful (then brand spanking new) EAA scheme, roaring south away from the rail embankment (they had to stop the trains whenever there was a take off to avoid jet blast blowing a passing Southern Region train from the vertical) is something I will never forget. Sadly I got no photos as cameras were banned from the factory tours for obvious reasons.

The terrible fate of that beautiful bird and, worse, its innocent occupants just a few years later is very sad.