Serviceable ones are around £1000 in the UK.

Also depends which type you want, 12mm or 14mm spark plug, 3 or 4 bolt fixing. Later type have larger exhaust valve guides to take the sodium valves.

Add also CFS at Coventry they have them, but see my top comment.

Yes they can. Which is what makes this project so amazing.

Yes they could, if it was on a register and had a ‘valid’ Certificate of Airworthiness.

At the moment it is just like a museum aircraft. It would be like trying to ground the Victor at Bruntingthorpe!

Apparently they had no pressing reason to preserve some ‘boring’ old propellor aircraft (not military, WWII etc). However, I have a supplementary question, are there any RR Darts still flying?. I once read somewhere that Viscount operators used to buy up withdrawn Viscounts in order to transfer the engines and use the remaining hours. It seems it was cheaper to do that than get Darts overhauled. In this current case the Darts seem to have been torn from the aircraft suggesting there was no market for them, at least not for Argosies. Practical issues aside, I would happily have put one in my garage.

The engines were removed and sold when they first acquired the aircraft. I think what was in it when it was scrapped were just hulks to hang the prop’s on.

The Darts fitted to the civil Argosy’s could be converted quite easily for other applications.

Edited to add there are still a few 748’s and F27’s still flying.

When the plans where being looked at for the K4 tankers there was a great deal of consideration given to moving the airframes by road from Abingdon to Filton rather than doing the limited rebuild to fly. I have a soft spot for the VC10 tanker as I was the Manpower Planning Manager on the K4 programme

Therefore it must be reasonably possible and probably no more challenging than the following

Nimrod from Kemble to Cosford
Victor from Shawbury to Cosford
Valiant from Hendon to Cosford

But they didn’t move them by road in the end.

Reasonably possible? Possible maybe, weather you class it as reasonable depends on your point of view.

l am basing my assumptions that we are talking about moving 808, which is effectively sitting on a disused airfield with no facilities or hangarage.

The horizontal stab would have to be removed, which is about 40′ in the air and it’s massive. That would require two tail docks and working out in the open air. I have been up to on a scissor lift outside and it ain’t for the faint hearted! Then the vertical stab, again massive and no easy way to remove. You can’t cut it as it’s got to support the horizontal stab, which weighs a ton. All four engines out. The fuselage will need to be split as its too long. And then you’ve got the wings. No production breaks, so they will need to be chopped, after removing all the flaps, ailerons, leading edge devices, and then bodged back together.

So we are talking £500k -750k and you will end up with a chopped and butchered aeroplane.

In my view it would be significantly more challenging than any of the above aircraft.

RAF VC10’s only ever had two reverse thrusts fitted….

When I did the Propulsion course at Brize the instructor did make reference to the VC-10 having four reverser’s, but the inboard two were deleted, because they weren’t needed and they caused tailplane buffeting issues. I got the impression, at the time, that the aircraft were delivered to the RAF with all four installed, but the two were removed at an early stage of the aircraft’s career.

I know from experience it was perfectly possible to fit an outboard engine to the inboard position on a C1!:highly_amused:

does Brunty now have 2 VC10’s ?

In addition to XR808 I saw two other substantially intact VC-10’s, they are on a pan at the western end. I understand that one these two was to remain intact as a runner, but doesn’t currently have any engines. I was told the plan is now to swap it for XR808.

Regarding the BA VC-10 landing at Cosford. Did the civil VC-10’s retain all four reversers? The RAF deleted the inboard pair on their aircraft.

Fecking unbelievable….. The most historic Ten that should be in the RAF museum…..
I’m totally disgusted.

It’s staying at Bruntingthorpe as a runner.

Better than being stihl sawed into pieces and moved to Cosford I reckon.

Looks and sounds like it could be quite amusing. Lets hope we get to see it.