VC 10 Photos
 

While sorting through some of my late neighbours effects I have found approx 45 B&W photo's,about 8"x10" produced by BOAC Technical Photographic Unit,circa 1963.There are 16 bound into a folder,of the flight-deck,the rest being of radio/radar&other technical installations.I don't want them,but I don't just want to throw them away, either,
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so if anyone here would like them,or know of someone who would,let me know your address by PM,and I'll post them on.

Brooklands museum?

Please let jheiminga know, see the link, he runs VC10.net

https://www.pprune.org/members/48625-jhieminga




http://vc10.net/

I will happily take them off your hands. I will send you a PM so we can work out the details.

Thanks for your suggestion toscana24,but I'm going to let jhieminga have the photo's.I did donate a VC10 radar aerial (brand-new,still in its bag),which came from the same source,to Brooklands last year.

An equally worthy home, thanks for making sure the photos survive!

Wisley late 60s
 

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Excellent photograph, Saint-Ex! Almost surreal. It might be entitled "Final Flight", but it proves the beauty of an extraordinary aircraft! For research into the VC-10 Jhieminga's superb website is well worth deep exploration.

- Ed

Yep, wonderful shot, so evocative. You can almost hear those Conways...

So I've always wanted to ask this question...
The BA VC-10s I flew on had registrations like "G-ASGC" - was this a nod to their reputation as "GAS-Guzzlers"?

(Good call on trying to preserve the photos - once lost, forever lost).

That's a cracker of a shot Saint-Ex! Looks like an early morning departure from runway 28. A shame that the registration is not legible but is a very atmospheric shot. A few years back I had the opportunity to wander around Wisley with Maurice Ungless, who used to work there in the early 1960s and I have some of the photos from that day on this page: https://www.vc10.net/Photos/Wisley.html Any chance I could add your photo to that page?

On the topic of photos, I received the photos that ex82watcher found just a few days ago, thanks! Most of them are detail shots of aerial installations or avionics boxes as his neighbour used to work in the avionics department at BOAC/BA. There are sets of flight deck photos as well that show the early configurations of the BOAC flight deck and the RAF C1 flight deck, I will see if I can add these to my site on a separate page in the near future. I did just add two photos to the page about XR806, see here: https://www.vc10.net/Airframes/cn_826__XR806.html (second row, first two images). These are the only two photos in the set that show a bit more of the exterior, and one of them happens to show the trial installation of the inflight refuelling probe on XR806. This was done at Wisley in the mid-1960s, before XR806 was delivered to 10 Squadron and it would take another 20 years (almost) before these probes would become a common feature on the C1 fleet.

As for the registrations of the BOAC Supers, they were allocated in sequence so any abbreviations, like the one you suggested 25F, are purely accidental, however fitting they may be.

Of course you may Jhieminga. During a BOAC engineering strike at LHR we used to fly the 10s into Brooklands for maintenance. This was probably on its way back to Heathrow.

Was that into Brooklands or into Wisley? The flights back to Brooklands were a bit risky due to the restricted runway and were most likely only carried out by Vickers test pilots.
Could you let me know what name I should put on the photo for the copyright credits? Feel free to PM or e-mail if you prefer. Thanks!

Into Brooklands, not risky but we had to wait for a still or northerly wind as the railway blocked the north end. There was always a fire engine ready to put out a possible brake fire. Don`t worry about copyright you may use the picture as you like, just nice to know someone cares enough!

Together with a friend who used to work at The Brooklands Museum I have tried to put together a list of known VC10 flights back into Brooklands. I ended up with about twelve flights, encompassing most of the BOAC Standards, the prototype, the second BUA airframe and two Supers. That is all based on photos and logbook entries. If BOAC also flew airframes into Brooklands for maintenance, that list should most likely be a lot longer. If you can tell me more about this, I would appreciate it.

By 1987, most of the knowledge about all this appeared to have been forgotten and at that point people weren't sure whether VC10s had ever made their way back to the factory runway. Because of this, the preparation for A4O-AB's arrival was quite extensive and there was quite a bit of excitement around the event.

12 BOAC flights is probably about right, all by Vickers pilots. I think I did 3 with Bill Cairns.

Bit of thread creep so apologies, From 1969 I lived in a new development just off set from the southern end of the runway. There was no aerial activity when my parents bought the house nor for a while afterwards. So we were all somewhat surprised when one day a VC 10 took off no more than 200 metres away. Four Conways at full tilt certainly grabs your attention.

It maybe folklore but I was told they had to fly out with nothing in them to make the hop to Wisley for fit out.

The VC10s that I know were flown back to Brooklands were these:
- G-ARTA (photo in Lucas book, shown departing Brooklands in MEA colours). Flown back for rebuilding to airline spec.
- G-ARVA (Eric Bucklow logbook, flew as co-pilot, via S.S.), WCN1185 (BAE Archives photo). Flown back for reconfiguring to airline spec.
- G-ARVB (photo from BAE Systems archives, via Stephen Skinner, MP24643).
- G-ARVC (photo in BAE Archives collection, departing Brooklands in Nigeria Airways colours, also in Stephen Skinner bookazine and Haynes manual shown in flight shed in NA colours).
- G-ARVE (photo in Martin Hedley book, Stephen Skinner bookazine).
- G-ARVF, rumoured to be the first to return (according to e-mail from G.P.) for drag modification assessment.
- G-ARVK (photo in Brooklands Archives/Putnam Aeronautical Review/Crowood VC10 book), flown by Trubshaw.
- G-ARVL Flown out of Brooklands again on 13 Jan 1966, according to Eric Bucklow logbook, via S.S.
- G-ARVM Flown out of Brooklands again on 28 Jan 1966, according to Eric Bucklow logbook, via S.S.
- G-ASGB (photo in Brooklands Archives).
- G-ASGD (photo in Brooklands Archives). For this one see: https://www.vc10.net/Memories/Flight...tml#TestPilots
- G-ASIX (photo in Brooklands Archives showing a departure from Brooklands in September 1965, flown there by McNamara/Bucklow in July 1965, from Gatwick).
If you can add any details to this list, please let me know. If you have the logbook details... even better!

The VC10s were certainly light when they left Brooklands, but I suspect that at least some of them did have an airline interior. They could of course use a very light fuel load for the short flight to Wisley. The last one, 5H-MOG, flew out with an empty cabin, see photo on this page: https://www.vc10.net/Airframes/cn_885__5hmog.html

Ten Sqn didn’t like the refuelling probe fitted as it spoiled the lines of the Ten, hence we only put them on when there was a requirement and removed them afterwards

G-ARVM
 

About to "touch and go" runway 21 at Prestwick, 27th March 1976
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