Other books have charted the VC10 in airline life, but this book blends that story 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 BOAC’s tactics, and a ‘who dunnit’ 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.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; East African Airlines made its name with Super VC10s, and so too did Freddie Laker with his famed VC10 fleet.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.The men of the Vickers Company who created the VC10 would later go on to engineer Concorde and, of course, the rest is history. But the era of the VC10 was pivotal and, 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.
AUTHOR: Lance Cole is a well respected aviation historian and author. He is the author of Secrets of the Spitfire: The Story of Beverley Shenstone, The Man Who Perfected the Elliptical Wing and Secret Wings of World War II: Nazi Technology and the Allied Arms Race published by Pen and Sword Books in 2012 and 2015 respectively. SELLING POINTS: . A new book charting the design and service history of the VC10 airliner, set within the wider commercial and political history of British airlines during the post-WWII period. . The famous battle with Boeing that took place during this era is relayed here in full and the legacies of this conflict are described in detail. . The VC10 engineers would eventually bring Concorde into being. Understanding the pre-Concorde era is vital in terms of aiding our understanding of its place in aviation history. 50 illustrations