Vickers VC10 K3 – ZA148

I visited last week and have just heard that sadly the site is due to be closed. Please sign the petition here, and help try to save this important centre for aviation heritage:

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Just before 11am on Wednesday 28th August, 2013 Vickers VC10 K3, ZA148 ‘G’, made its final landing at Newquay Airport, Cornwall (the former RAF St. Mawgan).  In doing so the aircraft completed its 48,351st flying hour but now takes up permanent residence as a static exhibit with the Classic Air Force (CAF), where the crew Flt Lts Nick Millikin, Jess Gannon, Kev Booth and Bruce Thompson were greeted by hundreds of enthusiasts and well-wishers. Richard Freail was on hand for AeroResource.
The aircraft, which took off from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and flew a tour of southern England before arriving at Newquay, was one of the last three airworthy VC10s out of 54 built for airlines and the military.

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Information below taken from the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre website:

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First flying on 29th June 1962, the Vickers VC10 was originally designed as a 4-engined, long-range airliner intended to transport more than 100 passengers in comfort over long distance routes and still be able to operate in hot conditions from shorter runways and high-altitude airports such as those found at African and Far Eastern destinations at the time.
As well as comfort, the VC10 offered speed and was until 2019 the fastest sub-sonic civilian aircraft ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean, achieving this feat in the only recently broken record time of 5 hours and 1 minute from New York Kennedy airport to Prestwick Scotland Airport – only Concorde was faster! The Vickers VC10 was the last great all-British airliner, a record-breaker and flag-bearer for Great Britain and fully deserves her famous title as the “Queen of the Skies”.
The VC10 that became “ZA148” was originally manufactured as a “Super VC10 Type 1154”, the distinguishing feature being a large cargo door in the port forward fuselage which allowed it to operate as a freight carrier as well as a passenger airliner. She was delivered to her first owners, East African Airlines in 1967 and operated with them with the registration 5Y-ADA until 1977.
After her civilian career, ZA148 was converted to ‘K3’ in-flight re-fuelling tank configuration and commenced her service career in 1984 with the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) based at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire where she participated in testing, trials and development programs for 2 years alongside VC10 K2 “ZA141”.

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