Aeroplane September 2017

BELOW:

The VC11’s planned

interior layout, a

four-abreast affair

seating a maximum

of 101 passengers.

42 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017

40 examples. When these were firmed

up on 5 December, suddenly the

need for other carriers to show their

support for the VC11 programme

became more pressing.

VC11 sales activity and

presentations, which had increased

towards the year’s end, entered 1961

with more urgency. Continental

Airlines showed interest, the bosses of

Vickers and the carrier having a close

relationship. Air France was visited

on 20 December, and in January the

team went to see Lufthansa. Other

campaigns continued with SAS (for

more than 10 aircraft), Austrian

Airlines, KLM (eight to 12) and

Middle East Airlines (between three

and five). In North America, National

Airlines had a possible requirement

for five aircraft and Northeast/

TWA for between 20 and 40. How

realistic any of these prospects were

is open to question. However, the

general manager of British West

Indian Airways (BWIA), John Rahr,

was told by BOAC chairman Rear

Admiral Sir Matthew Slattery “that

he saw no reason BOAC should

not buy the VC11 themselves and

lease to BWIA”, as the carrier saw a

requirement for such an aircraft.

There was felt to be a potential

market for between 100 and 190

VC11s among Viscount operators,

plus an additional 130 to 170 aircraft

by 1965. This figure was projected to

increase to nearly 600 by 1970.

Production plans were being

drawn up in November 1960, with

the final sets of drawings due to be

issued by the following October. It

was envisaged that Bristol would

manufacture the wings at Filton,

having been responsible for their

design, while the Vickers factory at

Hurn would build the fuselage. As

the wing was a scaled-down version

of the VC10’s design it was not felt

that static and fatigue testing would

be required, and in November the

wing area was increased from 1,600 to

1,650 square feet.

February 1961 saw an

announcement that Cathay Pacific

was looking at the VC11 as well as

the Boeing 720 and Trident. A month

later Cunard Eagle was said to be

studying the project alongside the

Hawker Siddeley product.

Vickers had spent the considerable

sum of more than £385,000 on

VC11-related efforts by the spring

of 1961, but delays in launching the

aircraft meant potential customers

were switching to the 727. For

the company’s long-term future a

decision was needed. As the months

progressed, so the VC11’s possible

first flight ‘slipped to the right’. It was

now due in March 1964.

Sir George Edwards, executive

director — aircraft at the new BAC,

ordered the company to undertake

an in-depth evaluation of the world

market for the smaller BAC 107

jet while he made a tour of the US,

touting reaction to both the VC11

and the 107. The feedback was

that the 107 would be the better

programme to launch, although it

needed to be larger and have more

VICKERS VC11

powerful engines. The result was

that this project was redesigned into

the BAC One-Eleven, dropping the

Bristol Siddeley BS75 engines and

replacing them with two RB163s, and

stretching the fuselage.

In a letter dated 13 March

1961, Sir George Edwards wrote

to the president of TCA, Gordon

McGregor, to advise him that BAC

was not going to be proceeding

with the VC11 programme and

that the company was released from

its obligations. A good working

relationship had developed between

the two men, even though the airline

had also been denied an opportunity

to buy the VC7.

Having studied this market

research, BAC decided to launch the

One-Eleven on 9 May 1961. With it

came the cancellation of the VC11,

the government launch aid being

transferred over to the new project.

The One-Eleven did encompass some

design features of the VC11, and

was launched without the backing

of a British state carrier. Its launch

customer was the newly formed

second-tier airline British United

Airways for 10 aircraft, quickly

followed by American carrier Braniff.

In March 1961, Lufthansa became

the first export customer for the 727,

signing up for 12 aircraft. American

Airlines, which never featured

heavily in potential lists of VC11

pitches, placed letters of intent for

25 of the new Boeings in May 1961.

One by one, many of the VC11’s

target customers fell to Boeing, so

that by 1967 Air France, National,

Continental, Pan Am, BWIA,

Ansett, TAA, Northeast and TWA

had placed orders for more than 160

examples of the 727 between them.

Those numbers only swelled in

subsequent years.

On the one hand, the VC11 was

larger than the Trident as eventually

built for BEA, which may have

garnered additional sales. On the

other, having four engines would have

proved costly and might have deterred

customers.

After nearly two years, thousands

of man-hours and hundreds of

thousands of pounds, the VC11

died. However, the One-Eleven was

able to embody some of the research

from its former sister programme. It

remained a BAC product until the

establishment of British Aerospace

in 1977 and carried on well beyond

that, keeping Weybridge and Hurn in

work and providing valuable foreign

currency for the UK when it was so

desperately needed.

38-47_AM_VICKERS_Sept17_cc C.indd 42 31/07/2017 13:28