Silent Swift Superb

Silent Swift Superb
Author: Timothy Walker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1998
Genre: Vickers VC10 (Jet transport)
ISBN:

This title presents the definitive history of the largest civil jet transport to be designed, built and enter service in the UK. It also covers all variants such as the V1000, VC11 and VC10 Superb, and includes a close-up-detail section for modellers.

Vickers VC10

Vickers VC10
Author: Lance Cole
Publisher: Crowood Press (UK)
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2000
Genre: Transportation
ISBN:

The VC10 was designed to operate in the difficult and demanding environment of the _Empire_ routes, which combined tropical conditions with often limited facilities. It was a tremendous success with its excellent payload, range, and performance, and was heralded by passengers and crew alike. Its length of service, the variants produced, and its development as an RAF transport all confirm the basic excellence of its design. Lance Cole tells the full story of its design and development. Using original Vickers documentation and interviews with the design and flight team, he has amassed a wealth of material, from its roots in the stillborn V1000 through to its current use with the RAF. Hdbd., 8 3/4_x 11_, 174 pgs., 148 b&w ill., 29 color.

Vickers/BAC VC10 Manual

Vickers/BAC VC10 Manual
Author: Keith Wilson
Publisher: Haynes Publishing UK
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780857337993

Designed in the 1950s to operate on long-distance routes, the four-jet Vickers VC10 saw service with BOAC and a number of other airlines from the 1960s to 1981. It enjoyed a further career with the RAF as a strategic transport and later as an aerial refuelling aircraft. The last VC10 K3 tanker was retired by the RAF in 2013. Keith Wilson examines the design, construction and use of the VC10, using as his centrepiece ex-RAF VC10 C1K (XR808) and VC10 K3 (ZA147) tankers at Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire.

Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 & Vickers VC10

Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 & Vickers VC10
Author: Stewart Wilson
Publisher: Australian Aviation
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 9781875671366

Boeing claimed the 707 as the airplane that made the world smaller and horizons larger. The DC-8 was developed a little later than the 707 and as a result was always playing catch up. Despite being a fine aircraft, the VC10 was too late to seriously challenge the 707 and DC-8, but today soldiers on in military service with the RAF as tankers and transports. This detailed work is filled with highlights of each aircrafts development plus a broad overview of its operational history. Legends of the Air 6. Sftbd., 8 1/4x 11, 186 pgs., 225 bandw ill., 60 color.

VC10: Icon of the Skies

VC10: Icon of the Skies
Author: Lance Cole
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2017-03-30
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 147387534X

“An excellent account of the political battles and the commercial skulduggery . . . and its outstanding service as a transport and tanker with the RAF.” —Firetrench The VC10 was the nation’s biggest jet airliner of its age and regarded as the world’s best-looking airliner. It was safe, fast, and designed to take off from short runways in Africa and Asia, at the request of its main operator BOAC—the airline that would later go on to become today’s British Airways. The VC10 and the larger Super VC10 were beloved by pilots and passengers alike and became icons of the 1960s. They were hugely popular all over the world. Yet the VC10 was eclipsed by Boeing’s 707 which sold by the hundreds, despite the fact that the 707 was less capable and could not initially operate from the runways of the Commonwealth and old British Empire routes, as the VC10 undoubtedly could. This book blends the story of VC10 development with a well-researched tale of corporate and political power play. It asks; just what lay behind the sales failure of the VC1O? Politics played an important part of course, as did BOACs tactics, and a whodunnit cast of politico-corporate events and machinations at the highest level of society during the dying days of Empire in 1960s Britain. Key players in the story, from Tony Benn to famous test pilot Brian Trubshaw (Concorde), are cited and quoted. By exploring this historical period in depth and highlighting all the various impediments that stood in the way of success for the VC10, Lance Cole adds an important layer to our understanding of twentieth century history.

The Hawker Hunter

The Hawker Hunter
Author: Martin W. Bowman
Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2020-07-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526705621

A “well-done” pictorial history of the legendary fighter plane “that both enthusiasts and modelers alike will enjoy”(ModelingMadness). If ever there was a real pilot’s airplane it was the Hunter: an outstanding multipurpose aircraft which excelled in the roles of interceptor fighter, ground attack, reconnaissance, research vehicle, and two-seater trainer, not forgetting its dramatic formation aerobatic performances. For decades, pilots have enthused about the Hunter, extolling the virtues of its smooth, aerodynamic lines, 4 x 30mm cannon, the Rolls-Royce Avon engine, and its outstandingly honest handling characteristics combined with a lively performance. It saw operational deployment in Europe with Fighter Command and 2nd TAF, in Cyprus, the Middle East, and the Far East, operating in the ground-attack role against rebels in Aden and Malaysia respectively. The Hunter was a classic thoroughbred of its time, from the stables of one of the finest fighter manufacturers in the world and, for fifty years, its adaptability was rarely challenged. Although the last example was retired in July 2001, the Hunter legend undoubtedly lives on, with 114 potentially air-worthy airframes located in fourteen countries around the world. Here, the legendary tale of the Hunter is told in words and images.

The World's Most Powerful Civilian Aircraft

The World's Most Powerful Civilian Aircraft
Author: Paul E. Eden
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1499465882

The World's Most Powerful Civilian Aircraft profiles many types, from cargo transports and freighters, through flying boats, passenger airliners, and business jets. Featured aircraft include the Ford Trimotor “Tin Goose,” one of the great workhorses of early aviation history; the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 “Charger” and Concorde, Cold War competitors in aviation excellence; and the most popular passenger aircraft of the present, including the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380. Each entry includes a brief description of the model’s development and history, a profile view, key features, and specifications. Packed with more than 200 artworks and photographs, this is a colorful guide for the aviation enthusiast.

British Aircraft Corporation

British Aircraft Corporation
Author: Stephen Skinner
Publisher: Crowood
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1847974503

The British Aircraft Corporation was formed from The Bristol Aeroplane Company, English Electric, Vickers-Armstrong and Hunting in 1960. In its short, seventeen-year, life, the British Aircraft Corporation built some of the most important aircraft and missiles of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond: its best-known products included the Jaguar and Tornado warplanes, Rapier missile and One-Eleven airliner. It was also responsible for the stillborn TSR2 strike aircraft, the 1965 cancellation of which remains controversial to this day. Most famously, the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner came from the BAC stable. BAC was subsumed into British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) in 1977, but many of its products remain in service to this day. This book tells their complete story.

Boeing 747

Boeing 747
Author: Lance Cole
Publisher: Air World
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781526760029

Boeing's 747 'heavy' has achieved a fifty-year reign of the airways, but now airlines are retiring their fleets as a different type of long-haul airliner emerges. Yet the ultimate development of the 747, the -800 model, will ply the airways for many years to come. Even as twin-engine airliners increasingly dominate long-haul operations and the story of the four-engine Airbus A380 slows, the world is still a different place thanks to the great gamble that Boeing took with its 747. From early, difficult days designing and proving the world's biggest-ever airliner, the 747 has grown into a 400-ton leviathan capable of encircling the world. Boeing took a massive billion-dollar gamble and won. Taking its maiden flight in February 1969, designing and building the 747 was a huge challenge and involved new fields of aerospace technology. Multiple fail-safe systems were designed, and problems developing the engines put the whole programme at risk. Yet the issues were solved and the 747 flew like a dream said pilots - belying its size and sheer scale. With its distinctive hump and an extended upper-deck allied to airframe, avionics and engine developments, 747 became both a blue-riband airliner and, a mass-economy class travel device. Fitted with ultra-efficient Rolls-Royce engines, 747s became long-haul champions all over the world, notably on Pacific routes. across the Atlantic in January 1970, 747 became the must-have, four-engine, long haul airframe. Japan Airlines, for example, operated over sixty 747s in the world's biggest 747 fleet. By the renowned aviation author Lance Cole, this book provides a detailed yet engaging commentary on the design engineering and operating life and times of civil aviation's greatest sub-sonic achievement.