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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0730.PDF
Vickers-Armstrongs' By MOLLY NEAL, use, IN the very near future the first aeroplane to be built under the auspices of the British Aircraft Corporation, the 135/151-seat VC10 long-haul airliner, will be taking off on its first flight from the 1,500yd runway of Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd at Weybridge, Surrey. This entirely new big jet, powered by four rear- mounted 21,0001b-thrust Rolls-Royce Conway 540 engines, will set a new high standard in long-range travel: in opera tional flexibility, in engineering sophistication, in passenger comfort, and in low interior and exterior noise-level. Cruising at some 500kt, the VC10 can carry its full payload non-stop from London to New York. Equally, it can take off at maximum weight from some of the most exacting airfields on any major routes: the high-altitude, high-temperature fields with short runways that are common on BOAC's far-eastern and African services. Autoflare facilities are built into the VC10, which is fully power- controlled. Later these are to be extended to permit fully automatic landing, providing another new level of regularity, reliability and safety. To achieve the stringent degree of system reliability con sidered essential for landing under automatic control,1 a very carefully worked out "belt and braces" philosophy has been applied to all the services and components vital to the safety of the aircraft. Components, as far as possible chosen conservatively from equipment already established in airline use, have been em bodied into an advanced split-systems concept. This includes divided control surfaces and control runs, duplicated auto pilots and landing aids, and twin electrical and hydraulic systems. Each half of every service is capable of safely operating the aircraft should a fault develop in the other half. From the outset, passenger comfort has been integrated with engineering design. In the words of Mr J. R. Finnimore, aircraft development manager of BOAC—the VClO's first and largest customer—"There will be no more hot heads, cold feet, inadequate ground cooling or heating, inadequate toilets or cabin noise (either engine or component induced). There should be no complaints on lighting, no faulty water systems, no more complaints of dry air, no more condensation or cold walls. There has never been a more passenger-conscious aircraft." Evolution of the VC10 From the point of view of the designers, the background of the VC10 stems from the cancellation of the military Vickers 1000 order in 1955 (and consequent cessation of work on the projected civil VC7). Early in 1956, under the leader ship of Mr Ernest Marshall, assistant chief engineer (projects), the company began to re-investigate the field of jet airliners, and they soon became convinced of the attractions of mounting the engines in pods at the rear of the fuselage. Among these attractions Long-range Jet Airliner C, AFRAeS they appreciated the clean wing, with better high-Mach character istics and with the full span available for high-lift devices; greater safety in wheels-up landings and ditchings; a compact propulsion system for servicing; greatly reduced cabin noise; and high develop ment potential with a minimum of structural alteration. Accordingly, in an attempt to fulfil early BEA requirements for a short-haul jet aircraft, they proposed a design with three rear- mounted engines. Then followed the larger and faster Vanjet, based on the Vanguard fuselage. But the development of the turbo- fan was still embryonic, and the project was not proceeded with. Vickers themselves felt that it was too small to attract world markets. Accordingly the Vanjet was abandoned, but it formed the basis for the next step which was to lead to the VC10. In March 1957, BOAC issued a very detailed specification for a jet airliner with a cruise performance and payload capacity equal to that of the current generation of American big jets, but capable of operating stopping services on their Eastern and African routes. These requirements implied a four-engined aircraft; and, in effect, the especially rigorous Singapore - Karachi sector decided the lift requirements of the aircraft, and hence its wing area. Without a rear-engine layout it would be almost impossible to satisfy this specification, for one could no longer obtain the maximum possible overall lift-coefficient at take-off. As a result of the large wing area demanded for the rigorous take-off conditions, it soon became apparent to Vickers that they had stowage space for very much more fuel than was called for; in fact, with very little modification the aircraft would have trans atlantic capability. BOAC saw the force of the argument, and the advantages of having a single aircraft type capable of covering their whole route network. Accordingly, the wing was modified, the span being increased by 30in to 140ft and wing area by 70 sq ft to 2,800 sq ft, and by the end of 1957 Vickers had completed the contract design specification for the "standard" VC10, their designation being Type 1100. A contract for 35 standard VC10 aircraft was signed by BOAC in January 1958, with an option on a further ten. In March, the V.1100 design emerged from the pro ject stage into the drawing office. In 1959 BOAC found that traffic on the North Atlantic was building up, and they decided that their remaining ten "option" aircraft should be modified to give better economics on these im portant routes. The rear-engine layout made it a comparatively simple matter to instal even more powerful Conway engines, add another 28ft to the fuselage, and extra fuel in wing-tip tanks to build up the gross weight to the limiting figure of 347,0001b for operation from London Airport's 11,000ft runway. This gave a passenger capacity of 200, against the standard VClO's 135.
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