Vickers VC10 BAC VC10 Type 1101

The Type 1101 is BOAC's VC10, the aircraft that sets the type's reference figures: 48.36 m long, 44.55 m in span, 141,521 kg maximum take-off weight and up to 151 passengers with four flight crew. When the Super VC10 appeared, the original design was retrospectively renamed the Standard VC10.

BOAC ordered up to 35 aircraft in January 1958 — the largest civil order placed in Britain at the time — but the figure fell to fifteen in May 1961 and to twelve that December. The well-publicised sequence of cuts eroded market confidence in the aircraft and eventually cost the airline's chairman and managing director their jobs.

The certificate of airworthiness came on 23 April 1964 and on 29 April the type entered service between London and Lagos. The VC10 was extraordinarily popular with passengers and crews — its comfort and low cabin noise were widely praised — and BOAC, and later British Airways, achieved better load factors with it than with the 707 or any other aircraft in the fleet. Of the eleven surviving Standards, ten were retired in 1974–75; five were eventually bought by the RAF and converted into K.2 tankers.