Vickers 1103 VC10 ex G-ASIX/A4O-AB (1964)

This aircraft operated in the Sultan of Oman’s Royal Flight, based at Muscat. It was built at Brooklands and initially delivered to British United Airways in 1964. It was eventually sold to the Omani Government in 1974.

The first VC10 flew from Brooklands on the 29th June 1962, and was the largest all-British production airliner ever built.  With four Rolls-Royce Conway engines grouped in pairs at the back it is very loud by modern standards, although for its time it was regarded by passengers as quiet and comfortable, something the original operator, BOAC, was keen to trumpet, describing it as “triumphantly swift, silent, serene”.

A further 53 examples (32 ‘standard’ and 22 Super VC10s) left the factory here over the next eight years. The largest VC10 customer was the British Overseas Airways Corporation, other operators including British United Airways, Ghana Airways and the Royal Air Force.

A40-AB’s final flight was from Muscat to Brooklands via Heathrow on 6th July 1987. Today the RAF remains the sole operator of the VC10 having added 14 ex-airline examples to its fleet during the 1980s/90s in an air-to-air refuelling role.