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There's no denying the VC-10 is a wonderful plane and a real looker too. Its typically British tortuous development and sales period is well known but suffice to say, as with the Trident, the national carrier (BOAC in this case) created a set of specifications and Vickers dutifully met those only for BOAC to change its mind and leave Vickers with an aircraft that couldn't compete with the Americans due to BOAC's own demands!
In a nutshell BOAC wanted an aircraft suited to hot and high conditions that could use shorter strips. Unsurprisingly this meant its trip costs weren't quite as good as the 707s and by the time production began the hot and high requirements were less of BOAC's focus and most airports had had their runways lengthened. What followed was BOAC bad mouthing the aircraft and effectively sabotaging its sales potential in the face of competition from the very strong 707. I am perhaps being a bit unkind to BOAC but only a little I think!
Anyway of the original standard length VC-10s only 18 were built - 12 to BOAC and the rest to airlines in hot and high locations. In 1:400 Aeroclassics produced an early mould back when they used decals which is very rare and unsurprisingly doesn't stand up to Gemini's later effort. This mould appeared in 2007 back when Gemini dared to do interesting things.
It's a great mould though the moveable horizontal stabiliser tends to just fall off in my experience! Gemini produced 10 civil versions of the standard VC-10-1100 and 5 military versions. Jet-X has also produced a mould but I have never seen it in person so can't say much about it. Anyway I have 7 of the civilian types in my collection and here they are:
British Airways VC-10-1101: This was I think the only short VC-10 to get repainted into BA livery as she was used until 1979 as a back-up aircraft for the Super VC-10 fleet.
British United VC-10-1103: BUA started jet ops with VC-10s in 1964 on BOAC's former South American routes. This aircraft was one of 4 and is preserved at Brooklands.
Air Malawi VC-10-1103: The carriers first long-haul route began in 1972 with a leased BCal VC-10 eventually bought and operated until 1979.
In a nutshell BOAC wanted an aircraft suited to hot and high conditions that could use shorter strips. Unsurprisingly this meant its trip costs weren't quite as good as the 707s and by the time production began the hot and high requirements were less of BOAC's focus and most airports had had their runways lengthened. What followed was BOAC bad mouthing the aircraft and effectively sabotaging its sales potential in the face of competition from the very strong 707. I am perhaps being a bit unkind to BOAC but only a little I think!
Anyway of the original standard length VC-10s only 18 were built - 12 to BOAC and the rest to airlines in hot and high locations. In 1:400 Aeroclassics produced an early mould back when they used decals which is very rare and unsurprisingly doesn't stand up to Gemini's later effort. This mould appeared in 2007 back when Gemini dared to do interesting things.
It's a great mould though the moveable horizontal stabiliser tends to just fall off in my experience! Gemini produced 10 civil versions of the standard VC-10-1100 and 5 military versions. Jet-X has also produced a mould but I have never seen it in person so can't say much about it. Anyway I have 7 of the civilian types in my collection and here they are:
British Airways VC-10-1101: This was I think the only short VC-10 to get repainted into BA livery as she was used until 1979 as a back-up aircraft for the Super VC-10 fleet.
British United VC-10-1103: BUA started jet ops with VC-10s in 1964 on BOAC's former South American routes. This aircraft was one of 4 and is preserved at Brooklands.
Air Malawi VC-10-1103: The carriers first long-haul route began in 1972 with a leased BCal VC-10 eventually bought and operated until 1979.
(the ones not released already)
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