Vickers VC7

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Vickers VC7
f2
Type: Four - engined narrow-body aircraft
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Vickers-Armstrongs

First flight:

not flown

Commissioning:

not put into service

Production time:

not finished

Number of pieces:

0

The Vickers VC7 was the planned civilian version as a passenger jet of the planned military V-1000 cargo aircraft based on the Vickers Valiant bomber .

history

The Vickers-Armstrongs VC7 was a planned jet-propelled passenger aircraft that was based on the planned Vickers V-1000 military transport aircraft . The Vickers VC7 prevailed against the Avro 722 Atlantic based on the Avro Vulcan and the Handley Page HP.111 based on the Handley Page Victor . The Vickers VC7 would have been powered by either Bristol Olympus or Rolls-Royce Conway engines. The design bears many similarities to the Vickers Valiant, one of the V-bombers , but also has significant changes. The VC7 was intended as a transatlantic jet airliner for the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). In fact, the British Ministry of Supply ordered BOAC as the first (civil) customer to procure the VC7. But BOAC itself was more interested in the Boeing 707 than in the VC7. Without the civilian version VC7, the price of the V1000 was too high for the British Ministry of Supply. In return, the production of the VC7 was not economical without the military order of the V-1000 and the lack of an order by BOAC.

This led to the following situation in 1955: At this point in time the prototype of the V-1000 had already been largely completed, the Ministry of Supply decided to stop the V-1000 project in the middle of the development phase. By this point, the design had piqued the interest of airlines and led to re-designs being carried out by competing US manufacturers that impacted the design of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 . Its cancellation has been the subject of considerable debate in the House of Commons.

The construction of the military transporter draft V-1000 and its civilian offshoot VC7 were used for the VC10 . The main innovation was the positioning of the engines. Experience had shown that the wing construction with the engines integrated in the wing was very prone to failure. Therefore it was decided to mount the four engines at the stern.

construction

The VC7 differed from the Valiant in the following points in particular: The elevators were attached to the fuselage below the rudder, as is the case with many commercial aircraft today, and not as a "crosstail" in the middle of the vertical stabilizer. The wings were attached to the underside of the fuselage instead of a high-wing configuration, making the VC7 a low-wing aircraft. This resulted in a shortening of the main landing gear strut and an extension of the nose landing gear strut. The entire fuselage was redesigned into a pressure fuselage. The bow of the bomber was replaced by a new design that corresponded to the conventional cockpit, bow design of jet passenger aircraft. In the course of the development, the wings were each provided with a flow body (also known as Küchemann carrots ) like the Convair CV-990 . In and of itself, the V1000 / VC7 looked like an enlarged de Havilland DH.106 Comet , but the engines were mounted further out in the wing compared to the Comet. The aim was to reduce noise emissions in the cabin and better protect the fuselage from the hot engine exhaust gases.

Technical specifications

  • Capacity: 100 passengers
  • Length: 44.50 m
  • Wingspan: 140 feet 0 inches (42.67 m)
  • Height: 38 feet 6 inches (11.73 m)
  • Wing area: 303.1 m²
  • Aspect ratio: 6.0: 1
  • Empty weight: 49,487 kg
  • Maximum take-off weight: 104,780 kg
  • Powerplant: 4 × Rolls-Royce Conway turbofans with 15,000 lbf (67 kN) thrust each
  • Cruising speed: 830 km / h (450 kn)
  • Range: 6,700 km (3,600 nm) (still air, 8,600 kg payload)

Versions

  • VC7 civil passenger aircraft
  • V-1000 military troop transport, tanker and material transport aircraft for the support of the V bombers.

literature

Web links

Commons : Vickers aircraft  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Hansard December 8, 1955, Vickers V-1000 Aircraft, Motion made, and Question proposed" , Hansard , December 8, 1955, question tabled by Mr. Paul Williams
  2. ↑ Barry Jones, "Opportunity Lost," Airplane , May 2008.
  3. ↑ Andrews and Morgan 1988, pp. 570-571.