page_title: Vickers VC10
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Vickers VC10 / Operational history / Military service / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: British Aerospace Harrier in aerial refuelling exercise
context_page_description: The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes from the shorter runways of the era and commanded excellent hot and high performance for operations from African airports. The performance of the VC10 was such that it had achieved the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a subsonic jet airliner of 5 hours and 1 minute, a record that was held for 41 years, until February 2020 where a British Airways Boeing 747 broke the record at 4 hours 56 minutes due to Storm Ciara. Only the supersonic Concorde was faster. The VC10 is often compared to the larger Soviet Ilyushin Il-62, the two types being the only airliners to use a rear-engined quad layout; the smaller business jet Lockheed JetStar also has this engine arrangement.
  Although only a relatively small number of VC10s were built, they provided long service with BOAC and other airlines from the 1960s to 1981.
context_section_description: In 2001, Oman-based VC10s were used in some of the first missions of the war in Afghanistan, refuelling US carrier-based aircraft carrying out strikes on Afghan targets. The VC10s provided air transport missions in support of British and allied forces stationed in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, codenamed Operation Veritas. VC10s remained on long term deployment to the Middle East for twelve years, ending just before the type's retirement.
  During the 2003 invasion of Iraq by an American-led coalition, a total of nine VC10s were deployed to the theatre under Operation Telic. In the aftermath of the invasion, multiple VC10s were commonly stationed in Iraq; in addition to logistics operations, more than a thousand casualties of the conflict were evacuated to Cyprus by VC10s. In June 2009, the remaining VC10s were withdrawn from Iraq, along with most other British military assets.
  Between 2000 and 2003, the remaining K2s were retired and scrapped. The surviving K3s served as tanker/transports with No. 101 Squadron at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire and the single remaining K4 supported No. 1312 Flight at RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. In January 2010, VC10 passenger operations were temporarily suspended while an airworthiness review was carried out.
  Following the 2006 North Korean nuclear test, a pair of VC10s were dispatched to Okinawa, Japan to undertake nuclear debris tests; this unusual task was performed using specialised sampling pods which replace the refuelling pods equipped as standard. During Operation Ellamy, Britain's contribution to the 2011 military intervention in Libya, a small number of VC10s were dispatched to bases in the Mediterranean and were used to refuel NATO strike aircraft being used in the theatre.
  The VC10 and Lockheed TriStar tanker/transports were replaced in RAF service by the Airbus A330 MRTT Voyager under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft Project. The type's final flights in RAF service took place on 20 September 2013, the final refuelling sortie was followed by a tour of the UK. On 24 September, ZA150 had its last flight to Dunsfold Aerodrome for preservation at the Brooklands Museum, while ZA147 arrived at Bruntingthorpe on 25 September.
caption: View from a Vickers VC-10 during an aerial refuelling exercise
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