Turned
ABOVE:
During 1959 the
VC11 confi guration
evolved into what
would basically be
its fi nal form, with
four rear-mounted
engines and a T-tail.
ALL PHOTOS BAE SYSTEMS/
BROOKLANDS MUSEUMAEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 39LEFT: A Vickers promotional model
of the VC11 illustrates the similarity
to its big brother, the VC10.
ALL PHOTOS BROOKL ANDS MUSEUMSix British companies responded
to BEA’s requirement: Armstrong
Whitworth, Avro, Bristol, de
Havilland, Handley Page and Vickers.
Only Avro, Bristol and de Havilland
were asked to progress their designs.
The specifi cation called for an airliner
faster than the Caravelle and with
more than two engines, which the
airline hoped would be rear-mounted.
The winner was de Havilland’s
DH121.
Through the excellent Brooklands
Museum archives, many projects are
revealed. One study for what Vickers
dubbed the MRJT, Medium-Range
Jet Transport, used the Vanguard’s
fuselage combined with a new wing
and tail unit, this featuring two
rear-mounted engines with a mid-
set tailplane. It seated 72 fi rst-class
passengers, or 80 in tourist class
with fi ve-abreast seating. Another
study, called the MkII, had a longer
fuselage that could accommodate up
to 100 passengers fi ve-abreast. Under
the Vanjet name, these proposals
morphed into tri-jet designs with
swept wings and powered by three
Rolls-Royce Avons mounted on the
rear fuselage, two of them in pods
on either side of the fuselage, the
third buried in the tail. A MkIII
design used four rear-mounted paired
engines, similar to the later long-
range VC10. A proposal for a small
Jet Viscount powered by RB140
engines was included in a brochure
for the US airline Continental in
May 1959.At this time Vickers had the
Vanguard on order for BEA to
the tune of 20 aircraft, the deal
having been done in July 1956. A
purchase by Trans Canada Air Lines
(TCA) in January 1957 added 20
more. Meanwhile, just a year after
the cancellation of Vickers’ own
VC7 project, BOAC had issued a
requirement for a new long-range
jet. This evolved into the VC10, for
which BOAC placed an order for 35
examples plus 20 options in January
1958 — fi gures very much amended
over the next few years. However,
despite this seemingly healthy order
book, little interest was being shown
by other major airlines, already
wedded to Boeing and Douglas jets.
The future of Vickers’ commercial
aircraft production was nowdependent on just the two home
carriers, plus one overseas airline —
TCA — that had always been loyal
to the company. Recognising the
need for a new project to keep the
Weybridge plant busy, and hopefully
to generate future sales and profi ts,
the VC11 was born.
The company had continued to
refi ne its Vanjet design, even after
it had not progressed to the next
stage of development for BEA’s
requirement. The resultant VC11 was
to be a larger type than that planned
for the state carrier.In the summer of 1959, the
grapevine reported that the VC11
was in design. Flight drew attention
to it fi rst, in its 28 August edition. It
revealed that TCA would like to be
the fi rst operator. Around the same
time it became apparent that US
carrier United was also talking to
Vickers about the programme.
Did the aircraft confl ict with
Vickers’ other project, the Vanguard?
Vickers didn’t seem to think so. It
still envisaged increasing demand
for this ‘bus stop’ airliner (which was
never realised), viewing the VC1138-47_AM_VICKERS_Sept17_cc C.indd 39 31/07/2017 13:27