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The VC10 population went down to several preserved airframes after the final flight in 2013. Officially all the other VC10s have been scrapped or destroyed, but some bits and pieces managed to evade this faith for a little while longer. Although not complete, some of these sections still exist, while others may have served a useful purpose for a while but got scrapped in the end. On this page I have tried to describe the fate of some bits and pieces that managed to survive a little bit longer than the aircraft that they came from. This is not a complete list. For nose and fuselage sections that have been preserved and are still around, see the Preserved VC10s page. Test undercarriage
The undercarriage used on the VC10 was an in-house design from Vickers. Because of this, all the testing had to be done in-house as well and for this purpose at least one main undercarriage was built that never flew. It was created to be used in drop testing where the main gear, with a representative weight on top, is dropped on a hard base to analyse the shock-dampening properties of the strut. For many years this test undercarriage has been out of sight in a small storage room on the side of the Stratosphere building at Brooklands. In 2013 it was seen outside, next to A4O-AB, and since the opening of the new Aircraft Factory exhibition on 14 November 2017 it is now officially on display in the restored Bellman hangar. Within the exhibition it represents the 'home-grown' undercarriages that were a feature on many Vickers designs. After its unfortunate accident at Gatwick that caused G-ARTA to be scrapped, some bits of the VC10 prototype were used by British Caledonian Apprentices to collect funds for the company's Golden Lion Childrens Trust. They cut VC10 shapes from G-ARTA's panels and mounted each on a wooden plinth with a plaque explaining the origins of the metal. It is not known how many of these shapes were produced but I'm sure they netted a nice sum when they were sold.
For a long time I have been under the impression that ZA144 was completely chopped up in 2002. On a base visit by the local St. Athan Aviation group in September 2002 the cockpit section was spotted, but I completely forgot about this. Now I've received a photo that shows the forward fuselage of ZA144 still in existence at the maintenance base, and in use by the Aircraft Recovery and Transportation Flight for training. In 2008 a photo turned up on Airliners.net showing the same nose section, the accompanying text explains that this nose section is often transported around the country for battle damage repair training. That explains the two photos below then!
Although she had been stored at St. Athan awaiting her demise since 2001, ZA142 was still in existance as a fuselage section minus wings in March 2004. The last remains of this VC10 K.2 were cut up two months later on 30th May 2004.
This particular VC10 has been owned by BOAC for almost it's entire life, although it did end up in another airline's colours. Through a long-term wet-lease construction the ruler of Qatar used the aircraft between 1975 and 1981. During these years she was flown by BOAC crews for whom it provided an interesting posting with some different sights to see. Although not owned by them the aircraft did fly in Gulf Air colours, apparently she was sometimes used as a spare aircraft for their services, and in this livery she was returned to BOAC in 1981. She was then sold on to the RAF as a spares source for the tanker conversion program which had just started. Re-registered ZD493 the last flight was made to RAF Brize Norton where she was stripped of spares and left. The photos below show the airframe in 1987.
At some point the maintenance serial 8977M has been allocated to this airframe, which suggests that a further use was found for it. Indeed she was used in the early nineties for a trial repair to the wing centre section torsion box. After the feasability of this repair was tested on ZD493 the ex-BA Supers were similarly repaired before their ferry flights to Filton and conversion to K4 tankers. The official fate of ZD493 is 'broken up and burnt' but there is a suggestion that the forward fuselage was saved for battle damage repair training. As this position was also filled by XR806 - see below - the chance of this section still surviving is very slim, but I have not been able to confirm its demise either. As XR806 wasn't damaged until 1997 perhaps ZD493 filled this spot for some of the previous years. According to 'Wrecks & Relics' the fuselage was on the fire dump in June 1993, and gone by May 1994. The story of G-ARVM is told on this page, including its partial demise in 2005. After the fuselage was moved to Brooklands the rest of the airframe was basically scrap and was carted off. Not everything is gone though, Mark Taylor (also owner of a VC10 galley) contacted me and told me that he is now the proud owner of the tailplane bullet front and rear sections. Instead of the faded red paint, the nose cone has been repainted into the colours it had when 'VM first entered service with BOAC.
This airframe started its life as an order from Ghana Airways but they decided not to buy a third aircraft and the position on the assembly line was subsequently sold to British United and the airframe finished as a type 1103 VC10. After flying with BUA and British Caledonian the aircraft entered RAF service as XX914, flying for the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Bedford. After 10 years of service the aircraft was scrapped, but sections were saved and moved to RAF Brize Norton where they were 'reassembled' to form a training object for aircraft loaders. Registered under the maintenance serial 8777M she was often referred to as the 'VC5', being only half a VC10. As can be seen from the photos below the VC5 was not a continuous fuselage section, but rather the rear end aft of the main gear bays grafted to the front fuselage section over the front cargo bay, which includes the main deck cargo door. With this setup loading procedures for all the VC10 cargo areas could be practiced without running the risk of damaging an airworthy VC10, or having to keep one on the ground for this purpose. This fuselage section was scrapped at Brize Norton in 2014. Another item from this airframe that enjoyed a second life is the vertical tail. During testing of the first VC10 K2 tanker conversion, on a flight on 9th June 1983, ZA141 was put into a steep dive for resonance testing. Unknown to the crew there was already a damaged plate in the vertical tail which failed during this testing and caused a strut to break and pierce through the skin. Swift action from the crew saw the airplane return to the airfield safely but inspection showed that one of the three fin attachment frames had broken. This problem was solved by removing the fin from XX914 which had just been withdrawn from use. ZA141 flew on with this fin for 17 years before finally being withdrawn from service herself in 2000. She was subsequently scrapped at RAF St. Athan.
This VC10 C Mk.1 suffered an unfortunate accident in December 1997 when she ended up with her nose in the air after a defuel session that didn't go as planned. As described on the 'Incidents and Accidents' page this was probably caused by not defuelling the fin tank, a costly error as it turned out as the decision was made not to repair the aircraft. After removing all the still servicable spare parts the aircraft was broken up in March 1999. This however was not the end of this particular VC10 as a large fuselage section moved to the Aircraft Battle Damage repair flight at RAF Brize Norton as a training aid. For this reason mock damage is created on the airframe which the trainees have to repair. As can be seen on the photos below the inside of this fuselage section is completely empty.
During the first week of September 2009 the nose section of XR806 was moved from its location between the structures bay and the paint bay at RAF Brize Norton, it ended up out on the airfield in the fire section area to be used for training. Just over a month later during the last week of October, the training apparently over, the final remains were scrapped and removed from the airfield. That leaves the bits shown below as the only remaining parts of this airframe. Another section of this airframe lives on in a private collection (for other items see here), Mark Taylor succesfully bid on an Ebay listing for the no.3 galley from XR806 when it became surplus to requirements at the Bristol Aero club. The galley had been gifted to them by RAF Brize Norton after XR806's scrapping. The galley unit is stored and awaiting restoration.
I was contacted by Andrew Lee who sent me a photo of another surviving (but small) section of XR806. Apparently the cargo door was sent to Farnborough a few years ago for fatigue testing and in August 2007 it was finally scrapped. Andrew managed to acquire a piece of it which contains a window that was part of the door (leftmost window when looking from the outside).
During a visit to the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust in October 2015 I spotted the cargo door section shown above together with a nice display that incorporates some photos, models and small items. When comparing the photos I took I realised that this may be a different section from the same door. This fairly well-known VC10, for its days as a Rolls-Royce test bed, has provided a service to the RAF up to the VC10's retirement. As described on the page about this aircraft elsewhere on this site (click on the registration above) the airframe was stored at RAF Kemble and subsequently scrapped there as the RAF did not deem the aircraft to be a fit candidate for return to service. It had sustained some damage to the airframe during its testing days and repairing this would have been too costly. So what has survived then? Apparently at some point the cockpit was stripped, and the center pedestal and flight engineer station were removed. These were positioned at RAF Brize Norton where they served as a training aid for RAF aircrew. While many instruments are represented by drawings affixed in the right place, this cockpit mock-up (or Cockpit Procedures Trainer) was used to practise checklist routines and emergency drills. As such it was an extension of the training programme and a very cost effective tool in preparing for simulator sessions and real flights.
Another little bit that has survived is the fuselage panel carrying the (hand painted) scroll 'Hugh Malcolm VC' and the squadron crest. This is in the RAF Museum's collection, but not on public display unfortunately. The no.4 engine nacelle from this airframe has been converted into a four-bed caravan. See the XV104 page for a photo. The cockpit of this airframe (from the flight deck floor up) is in storage at St. Athan. The German company Aviationtag.com specialises in tags, which can be used for keys, luggage or just as a memento, created from old bits of aircraft skin. Late in 2018 the company launched a run of 5000 tags (for obvious reasons all these tags are limited editions) created from VC10 C1K XV106. After XV106 carried out its last landing at Bruntingthorpe on 7th November 2012, the aircraft was stored at the airfield while parts were recovered, until the airframe was cut up in August 2013. The nose section was stored and moved to the Avro Heritage Museum in September 2016, while a fuselage section is still around at St. Athan, but apparently some other (smaller) bits of metal found its way to Aviationtag.com. The end result is an affordable and distinctive memento of this particular C1K and the RAF VC10 fleet as a whole. See this link for more details and the Aviationtag.com online shop.
The cockpit of this airframe is in storage at St. Athan. Acquired by the RAF as a spares source for the K4 conversion program, this aircraft was ferried to Brize Norton and broken up there in 1982. The fuselage was transported to the RAF Fire Fighting & Safety School, Catterick, and in May 1988 to RAF Manston for a similar purpose. The photo below was taken in 1986 and shows the fuselage at Catterick, with the nose section of Handley-Page Hastings TG536 strategically placed. See below at the entry for ZD239 for its eventual fate.
Photo from the Oldprops website This airframe was also ferried to RAF Brize Norton and broken up there in 1982 for spares. In 1987 the first two photos below were taken showing a substantial piece of airframe still in place, but in pretty bad shape. The third photo was taken in 1991, showing that by then little remained of the airframe. In all probability the remains have since been scrapped.
The nose section of this aircraft may still be around though. Allocated the maintenance serial 8700M it was apparently converted to a Tanker Simulator. As soon as I can find photos of this I will include them here. This Super VC10 was not even moved, but broken up at Abingdon in 1987. The forward fuselage was transported to the RAF Fire School, Manston, in 1990 and combined with the rear fuselage from ZD233. The remains were scrapped by White's of Oxford around 1999.
As described on the Incidents & Accidents page this aircraft was blown up at Dawson's Field, Zerqa, Jordan. There was one piece that managed to enjoy a second life though. Shortly after the end of the spectacular hijacking a party from BOAC was sent to Jordan to remove any remaining parts that could be used as spares. As it turned the horizontal tail was the only piece that was recovered. It was later fitted to another aircraft and so continued to fly for a little while longer.
After being hijacked G-ASGO ended up at Schiphol Airport, The Netherlands, where the hijackers made an attempt to destroy the aircraft by fire. Although largely unsuccessful the aircraft was deemed beyond repair and was broken up at the airport in 1974. A small section of the fuselage side panel was removed and donated to the local aviation museum Aviodome. In 2003 the museum moved to Lelystad Airport and changed its name to Aviodrome, but fortunately the fuselage panel was not thrown out and also made the move to Lelystad. In October 2006 I was finally able to see it for myself. The item hasn't been on display for a while now and is hidden inside a storage container. The fuselage panel is mounted on a small, low table with placards describing it. It was donated to the (then) Aviodome by 'British Airways Overseas Division' and is presented to show the construction of a pressurized cabin. From left to right there are three panels (divided by the fuselage frames) showing the fuselage and window configuration with and without the decorative covering. Two window panels from G-ASGO are still around, having been preserved in a private collection. They have since moved back to Brooklands, where they were added to the museum's collection of small items. They still show the effects of the heat and smoke.
With thanks to A. v/d Holst/Aviodrome Having been stored at Abingdon, this Super VC10 (also known at the time as 'Romeo', apart from this being the last letter in its civil registration, it was also the next letter in the sequence of tail codes as ZD242 carries the 'P' on its fin, and 'Q' is hardly ever used for these purposes) was moved to Filton for spares recovery. It was stored there at the Palm Beach site at the far side of the airfield. Parts of the airframe were also used in a study about the effects of metal fatigue in ageing airframes. At the end of the conversion programme in 1993 the airframe was removed by a company called Hanningfield Metals, together with an early BAe 146. From this it appears that there are no sections remaining from this aircraft, contrary to my earlier assumptions. Ironically it was the last Super VC10 to undergo a major overhaul during its time with British Airways, and as such it is surprising that this airframe was not selected for conversion while ZD235, which had once suffered a heavy landing, did get upgraded to K4 specifications. In the end this fact may have led to the early scrapping of ZD235. Many aircraft enthusiasts seem to have a special gene that enables them to hold on to items no other person would keep in their house. Personally I'm no exception, although fortunately this streak is not as active in me as it is in others (there's no cockpit in my garden yet, one of the reasons I'm still in a relationship I guess). There are some small items in my possession that have a strong VC10 connection as they originate from that design. In the photo below, from left to right:
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