C/n 819 - G-ASIW

Date
29 May 1963	G-ASIW registration taken up
30 July 1964	First flight
7-13 September 1964	On display at Farnborough airshow, left on last day with Rolls-Royce on board for demonstration tour through Africa, but had to clear customs at Gatwick first.
13 September - 21 September 1964	G-ASIW flew a number of flights through Africa (captained by Dennis Hayley-Bell) to promote the VC10, BUA and all things British, including a borrowed Rolls Royce. This combined a demonstration tour with route proving. See here and here.
30 September 1964	Delivery to British United Airways as G-ASIW
November 1964	Temporarily carried Sierra Leone titles when replacing a leased Britannia on Sierra Leone Airways flights.
September 1966	Change to blue and sandstone scheme
October 1966	An incident during maintenance requires removal of the tailplane.
29 October 1968	Operated to Singapore and onwards to Sydney, carrying Greek immigrants heading to Australia.
1970	To British Caledonian as G-ASIW 'Loch Lomond'
4 July 1972	Operated first BCal flight to Seychelles, one year after G-ASGM became first jet to land there.
12 November 1974	Registered to Air Malawi as 7Q-YKH
3 December 1974	First flight in Air Malawi colours to Chileka airport, Blantyre, Malawi.
2 April 1978	Operated from Gatwick to Blantyre, Malawi.
7 April 1978	Operated Blantyre to Gatwick service.
18 May 1979	Operated from Gatwick to Malta and Blantyre.
31 May 1979	Operated from Blantyre via Nairobi to Gatwick.
September 1979	Decision to withdraw the VC10 from service at the end of October. Rising costs are the culprit.
29 October 1979	Last revenue service from Amsterdam to Gatwick.
29 October 1979	(Later that afternoon) Ferried to Hurn for possible sale to the RAF. Crew: Captain Tony Britchford, FO 'Jock' Cruikshank, FE Bob Jones. Several Air Malawi employees joined the flight: Bob Cooper, Brian McKay, Dick Stephens, Sherrie Armstrong and Pamela Henderson.
April 1981	Crew arrives at Hurn for ferry, aircraft needs three weeks of work to get it airworthy again.
2 May 1981	Final flights: Hurn-Athens, Athens-Chileka. Stored at Chileka awaiting sale.
July 1995	Scrapped.

1. BUA's first VC10, G-ASIW, being assembled at Weybridge alongside three BOAC Supers. At this point the wing still has the original wing fence configuration. This airframe had the modified wing with a 4% wing chord extension but the wing fences took some testing before they were finalised. The BUA aircraft also had downturned wingtips which were not present on BOAC machines.
2. G-ASIW on the ground at Weybridge before its first flight.
3. G-ASIW taking off on its first flight from the Brooklands runway. BUA's Freddie Laker was on board during the short flight to Wisley.
4. G-ASIW landing at Wisley on 31 July 1964, a day after its first flight.

1. The ultimate publicity photo: G-ASIW taxiing at the 1964 Farnborough airshow with a Rolls Royce visible through the open cargo door and a BUA 1-11 overhead.
2-3. G-ASIW seen in flight in publicity photos taken in September 1964. At this point the outboard wing fences have not been changed yet.
4. In service and awaiting passengers. This image shows that the registration was placed below the engine pylon, mostly hidden by the engines, which makes it difficult to identify individual BUA VC10s in this scheme!

1. Another photo at London Gatwick shows that the wing fence configuration hasn't been finalised. The outboard fence is cut back but there are two underwing fences which were tested on G-ASIW and the first Ghana Airways machine.
2. This BUA publicity photo shows the full Sierra Leone livery on G-ASIW (most likely, based on the underwing fences) at Freetown in late 1964.
3-4. G-ASIW in BUA's blue and sandstone livery taking off from Entebbe airport.

1. Photographed at Johannesburg in 1976.
2. The single Air Malawi VC10 seen at Chileka, Blantyre in 1977.
3. Undergoing maintenance with British Caledonian.
4. In 1978 the government published a book about the country called 'Smiling Malawi'. The VC10 was used to illustrate the progress the country had made in expanding its transport networks.

1. 7Q-YKH seen at Manchester after a diversion, this was not a normal stop for this airline.
2-3. After being placed in storage at Chileka the state of the airframe went downhill fast. Removal of fuel from the tanks caused the centre of gravity to shift, add some high winds and the VC10 adopted this undignified pose.
4. When the president was due to use the airport the VC10 had to be put back on its gear. The solution was to remove two of the engines, this tipped the aircraft back on its nosewheel.

BUA	Dark blue and red over white with large Union Jack on fin.
SLA	Same as above with large Sierra Leone titles in green.
BUA	Blue and sandstone scheme, white over grey fuselage with large blue/sandstone cheatline sweeping up over the fin. Text on engine nacelles was later removed to match the 1-11 scheme.
BCal	Initially titled as 'Caledonian//BUA', white over grey fuselage with dark blue and gold cheatline, dark blue fin with lion rampant. Known as 'Golden Lion' scheme. Titles later changed to 'British Caledonian'. All aircraft were named after Scottish lochs.
AM	White topped fuselage to below window belt line. Black, red and green cheatline. Red titles on forward fuselage, red tailfin with logo.