C/n 857 - G-ASGG

Date
17 May 1965	First flight.
1966-1967 (winter)	Used for trials on the development and certification of the Elliot Autoland equipment for the BOAC Super VC10 fleet.
21 June 1967	Delivery to BOAC as G-ASGG.
21 July 1967	Operated BA538 flight from New York to Prestwick and onwards to Manchester. First appearance for this airframe in Captain Frish' logbook.
14 September 1967	Operated BA561 flight from London to Boston and on to Detroit.
17 November 1967	Operated BA505 flight from New York to Montego Bay, Kingston and then to Lima. Returned to New York on same route two days later (BA508).
9 April 1968	Operated from Piarco, Trinidad to Georgetown, Bahamas as flight BA691.
16 November 1971	During the initial stages of the descent to Melbourne, after a flight from Perth, the aircraft encountered turbulence, leaving one of the 29 passengers with injuries.
1 April 1974	Ownership transferred to British Airways.
27 October 1979	Retired from airline service at Heathrow.
2 May 1980	Apparently back in use, operated service from Heathrow to Khartoum.
29 December 1980	Ferried to Prestwick for storage.
3 April 1981	Sold to the RAF, ZD235 allocated.
10 April 1981	Ferried to RAF Abingdon for storage. Hours flown at time of retirement: 46899hrs.
27 April 1981	Registration G-ASGG canceled as 'Transferred to unqualified owner', with note 'to RAF'.
16 July 1991	Ferried to Filton with gear and slats locked down after several months of work.
13 December 1995	First flight from Filton after conversion to VC10 K4 tanker.
8 March 1996	Delivered to 101 Squadron at RAF Brize Norton as ZD235, allocated code letter 'L'.
27 March 2002	Withdrawn from service, final flight to RAF St. Athan. Total hours on the clock: 49568 of which 2669 hours in RAF service.
September 2003	Moved to St. Athan scrap area.
7 January 2004	Airframe scrapped at RAF St. Athan.

1. An overview of G-ASGG's flight deck, with the windows either covered or retouched for some reason.
2. Another view of the flightdeck, there appears to be some sort of measuring or recording device attached to the Captain's control column.
3. The centre panel, with the necessary autoland additions visible on the Co-pilot's side. The Dymo taped marking states 'Switch to normal for auto flare'.
4. A close up view of the autopilot panel with the Flare setting on the 'Mode Selector' switch on the left side.

1. G-ASGG carrying out one of the many landings during the development phase for the Elliot Autoland equipment.
2. This is the underfloor avionics compartment, looking at the righthand side. The rectangular boxes in the top three levels of the left rack are all marked 'For flight test only', indicating that these are not production ready versions from Elliot.
3. Two stations are set up for flight test engineers on the left side of G-ASGG's cabin.
4. The second of these two stations includes several repeater instruments at the left side. These copy various parameters that are also shown on the flight deck, such as airspeed, altitude and ILS lineup. The window alongside it has been modified to fit an angle of attack sensor.

1. G-ASGG lands itself as the crew, and at least one observer with clipboard, watch on.
2. This press photo from BOAC was used on several occasions whenever something happened to a Super VC10, but it shows G-ASGG approaching for landing.
3. Once in service, 'GG became one of the 17 Super VC10s in BOAC's fleet. Seen here in November 1970 at an unknown location.
4. In 1973 Andy Frish spotted G-ASGG peeping out from one of the four bays in the TBA hangar at Heathrow.

1. G-ASGG at Prestwick, by now in full British Airways colours, during October 1976.
2. G-ASGG at Prestwick again sometime during 1979.
3. Geoff Hall flew as Cabin Crew on G-ASGG, this time to Blantyre, Malawi.
4. He took these photos of the iconic Super VC10 tail under a blue African sky.

1. The weather at Manchester isn't always as good as in Africa, as can be seen here.
2. ZD235, with the 'G' still on the tailplane bullet, stored at Abingdon next to G-ASGP.
3. ZD235, ex G-ASGG, landing at Filton after the 20 minute ferry flight.
4. Converted to a K4 tanker, ZD235 is seen here during an air-to-air sortie on 12th September 1997.

1. ZD235 at an unknown location in 1998.
2. Parked at Brize Norton, ZD235 is resting between sorties in August 2000. ZD235 was never repainted in the grey colourscheme.

BOAC	Second version of BOAC 'Golden Speedbird' scheme, golden edge on cheatline removed and cheatline now arcs smoothly down towards the nose without the step of the previous scheme. During initial testing, BOAC titles and the speedbird emblem were not carried and some black markings were added to the top fuselage.
BOAC/BA	As above but with British Airways titles on the forward fuselage.
BA	First British Airways ('Negus') scheme, white over dark blue fuselage with grey wings. Top of fin and stabilizer in red with Union Jack section. British Airways titles and small Speedbird on front fuselage.
RAF	First RAF 101 Sqn 'Hemp' scheme. Grey undersides with hemp colours on top and fuselage sides. Toned down markings and large letter 'L' on fin.