Vickers VC10

With the imminent end of an era with the VC10's retiring in September, leaving only four in service until then, I thought it might be nice to have a thread on the old aircraft. Those remaining in service are XR808, ZA147/F, ZA148/G and ZA150

Here are a few of my photos of the VC10, all taken at Brize.

1 - ZA147 and XR808


2 - ZA147


3 - XX914 - aka 'The VC5'


4 - ZA148


5 - ZA149


6 - XR808


7 - XV106


8 - ZD241


9 - ZA149


10 - ZA149

great photos great aircraft, love to see it belching 4 trails of good old fashioned smoke! lovely, my boy is stationed in brize and messes around with them every day, i say mess around, because i can believe he actually does anything functional, haveing seen him try and use a hover!!

100% agree, great photos and a fine aircraft. I live about 5 miles from Brize and we regularly have VC10's overhead.
I'm proud to have worked on the tanker conversion project in the summer of 1981 when I was an apprentice.
It's a real testament to the original design that they are still flying. Superb airframe.

Rich, I love that last shot - very different.

There are other aircraft types that are my favourites, and others that will doubtless leave a far greater mark in history, but I say the VC-10 is the greatest British aircraft ever built.

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VC-10 K.3 ZA147 F last major service departure 25 Nov 10 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

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VC-10 K.3 ZA147 F 25 Nov 10 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

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VC-10 K.3 ZA147 25 Nov 10 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

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VC-10 C.1K XV106 W 3 Aug 07 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

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VC-10 C.1K XV104 landing on 08 23 March 07 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

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VC-10 K.3 ZA150 J 11 Jan 12 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

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VC-10 C.1K XV108 Y 28 Jan 11 by jamtey71 , on Flickr

Agree with that James, got to be one of the best British Aircraft ever built. One of the prettier ones too.

I have a couple of other similar pics to that last one, its quiet interesting standing underneath it when its coming in to land!!!

I like the Victor, perhaps more than the VC-10, however it can't hold a light against the VC-10s service longevity, reliability, and safety, no VC-10 was ever lost due to a problem with the aircraft itself.
XR808 will have seen 46 years of flying when it's retired this year.

Surely the Comet/Nimrod airframe is the best & longest lived.

Bit tenuous, Comets and Nimrods are different beasts, as indeed are early Comets to late Comets. Admittedly two Comets saw long service with the RAE and ETPS, the longest serving and last retired, XS235, saw 34 years of service.
Off the top of my head (and willing to be corrected), I think the only British aeroplane that has served longer is the Canberra - even then I'm not sure that an individual airframe (maybe one of the 39 sqn T.4s?) has flown as long as the 10s have.

I think all British aircraft are Great no matter what they where or when they were Built !! But my Favorates have to be The Lancaster , The Vulcan , & the one that got so far & never made it into RAF service " The TSR2"
Bomber .