VC10 quickie
 

Could a VC10 (C1) use a 6,594 ft runway at all?

What limitations would be imposed?

Wisley Airfield Direction Length ft m 10/28 6,200 1,900 - (Source Wikipedia)

Belize 1981: 6000ft exactly from memory, +35C, high humidity - no issues I was aware of, except turning around with no turning circles.

VC10 landing at Brooklands might qualify as the shortest..
See near the end of The 1st and last VC10 flight

Thanks chaps, that answers my question admirably, and with some entertainment value, too.

Though Belize is 9,678 ft long!

VC10s were restricted to 266,000 lbs MTOM at Wisley, according to someone who worked there in 1962.

It is now - it wasn't then! (I was OC Butcher Radar at the time)

(Check Google Earth - poor quality image from 1970 shows the basic runway outline; measure facility shows roughly 6000ft)

Granted this was probably operating very light, but here's some VC10 porn from Biggin Hill, UK - runway length just under 6000ft

I've also heard it said that there was definitely one (and maybe a few more) trips to Jersey in around '87/88, which is a bit shorter still at 5,600ft.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3154f390e7.gif
Wow!!!! :eek:

But, would a VC10 even fit between the white lines let alone land between them as suggested above????

Just askin'! H 'n' H

We flew in and out of Brooklands at 1,200 yds.

In the 90's they were serviced at St Athan whose runway was 5988'. They would of course have been empty apart ffrom minimum fuel.

We flew in and out of Brooklands at 1,200 yds. Always landed towards the railway and had the occasional smokey brakes.

Allright, I should have said 'the aim was to touch down between the white lines'.... but most visitors to my site won't be able to tell the difference ;)

Were all VC10s and SV10s built at Weybridge/Brooklands or just some? Presumably they were then flown with ultra minimum fuel to Wisley just five miles away as crow but not a VC10 flies , (probaly at least 30 miles by airliner) for the flight test programmes aside of course from heavy weight T/O hot and high etc. Of course as we all know and indeed love the fact that the VC10 was probably the loudest airliner ever made on the outside and with the short runways at both fields they created a huge amount of noise in very very Nimbyish areas -St Georges Hill for example is in between the two locations.

I was lucky enough to see the first VC10 landing at LHR and a very fine sight it was too especially with that weird low whine it made when taxying

Aw, then you'd have deprived me of being able to spend a bit of time not being bored during "social distancing" and "internment" to send that Post!!!!! :p

Seriously, I volunteered a bit at Brooklands some years ago and was most impressed with the VC10 and the whole concept of flying stuff in and out of there. Didn't the Vanguard come in after the runway had been bisected by a road? Love the bit in the link that mentions that with brake failure they'd have hit the railway at 43 kts. I'd not heard the story as it was told on VC10.net - quite a story of how an airframe keeps on cropping up in someones life. That's what's nice about this aviation stuff, the affinity we can have with some Dural. Will composites have the same affinity? :O Time will tell!

Cheers, H 'n' H

Correct, all built at Brooklands and all flown from Brooklands to Wisley on its first flight. The prototype's first flight was actually planned to go to Boscombe Down, but Jock Bryce decided on Wisley during the flight (see here).

I bet sparks flew when he took that photo.

I’m surprised BEagle hasn’t given some figures yet. Lightweight it was a rocket ship (think lightweight 757),less so at max weight.

Have a look at Andy Lambert's video for that story: They got lucky....

I've gone and changed the caption now, sorry about that :p VC10s were flown back to Brooklands with some regularity during the years when they were built there, but by the time of A4O-AB's return, it hadn't been done for years. Also, the test pilots with that experience were not current on the type anymore. I've got another good story about one of those earlier return flights here.

From a recent visit to Brooklands.. the aircraft were assembled on the west side, then taxied across and round the loop on the north east end of the runway, actually taking a running start to the take-off roll on the taxiway, slightly out of line with the runway. This gave a little extra for the take-off roll of the unfinished (internally) aircraft which was then completed at Wisley.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8d31c43d1c.jpg