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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0447.PDF
FLIGHT International, 28 March 1963 425 AIR CO E R C E UP TO DATE WITH THE VCIO SINCE the Vickers VCIO first flew in June last year there have been reports and rumours about excess drag. BAC have kept their VCIO customers, and potential customers, fully informed; and now, with modifications which are "beginning to show us the daylight," the company decided on an enlightened exercise in positive '.public relations. The Press were invited to Wisley, the VCIO testing base near Weybridge, to sample an aircraft in flight, and then afterwards to talk to the company's senior engineers and executives. Seldom, if ever, has a British aircraft company spoken publicly •with such frankness about a design trouble. If the Flight International representative were asked to sum up VCIO progress it might be as follows:— On the debit side drag has proved to be considerably in excess of wind-tunnel estimates. Most of this arises from the rear-mounted configuration of the engines, and some from the wing slats. Modi fications already made are estimated to have eliminated about 50 rper cent of the excess drag, and modifications due to be incorpor- : ated promise to get rid of the other half. This will enable BAC to meet their contractual guarantees to BO AC, BUA and Ghana : Airways in respect of delivery dates and performance. Later modifications, at present the subject of wind tunnel tests, should reduce drag a further 5 per cent to achieve the additional Super ; VCIO range requested by BOAC. On the credit side the VCIO, without any doubt at all, cuts 707/DC-8 approach, landing and take-off speeds by 15-20kt; and the quietness of its cabin really does promise to be something new in the big-jet market. Four aircraft have been flown in the nine months since G-ARTA's first flight last June, and the 400th hour and 187th flight were ; reached during the Press demonstration flight in G-ARVA. In the : first 16 days of March 102hr were logged in 40 flights. Flying usually starts at 7.30 each morning, often continuing until after dark, and on a six-day-a-week basis (noise precludes flying on Sundays). It is not uncommon for all four aircraft to be airborne at the same time; the most recent occasion when there were no \CI0s to be seen on the ground at Wisley was March 19. Obviously an enormous flight test effort, on a scale never before attempted in Britain, is involved. In addition to half-a-dozen Vickers test pilots, led by Brian Trubshaw, two BOAC skippers. Captains Cane and Field, have been assisting with the programme since September. The Vickers flight test staff numbers about 100 people, of which 70 are assigned to the VC10, including 20 observers on flying duties and about 35 office staff who analyse and reduce results, the balance being made up of instrument technicians. Originally the programme called for l,400hr of development flying by four aircraft, three instrumented and one for an additional l,000hr of route-proving. Subsequently the programme was altered to include six aircraft flying about the same total of hours. The aircraft and their assignments and records are as follows:— Aircraft G-ARTA (Vickers G-ARVA G-ARVB G-ARVC G-ARVE G-ARVF owned) Stability and control, handling. resonance, flutter, structural integrity and part of the auto pilot Systems, including autoflare (due to be tested from May) Performance Radio Modified engine nacelles Route-proving 237hr ISmin 121 flights 92hr 40min 32 flights 6lhr 40mn> 28 flights 6hr 50min S flights Mid-April, '63 June The test programme, managed by Mr M. Crisp, is divided into three stages: (1) acceptance, snag clearing, test-gear calibration, etc; (2) development; (3) measurement. So far Vickers have behind them the major part of low-speed handling and performance development work, and have practically covered the high-speed testing also. Maximum speed of 0.92, or 615 m.p.h. at the altitude concerned, has been attained. Mach 0.94 will be recorded. Mr Brian Trubshaw, Vickers' chief test pilot, said that high-speed testing called for just one more flight at Mach 0.92 at 35,000ft, and that Mach 0.92 was soon to be measured at the intermediate Flight International" photograph command of last week's first passenger '!<ght in the VCIO, a 69min trip from Wisley to Cornwall and back, were: left-hand seat, '•Ir £. 6. Trubshaw, Vickers' chief test pilot; _|ght, Copt Peter Cane, BOAC special-duties ^ilot participating in the development pro- Zramme; left, Mr £. McNamara, VCIO test 'Hot. Instruments read Mach 0.84, 35,650ft, -SOkt. Take-off weight was 229,0001b, and "*•« aircraft was airborne in 23sec using •000ft of W/sley's 6,600ft runway
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