3 slides bought on ebay

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Murray Keene
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:14 am

3 slides bought on ebay

Post by Murray Keene »

I have managed to buy 3 beautiful slides of one of my favourite girls! XR 809 that was later re-registered as G-AXLR and sent off for modifications that killed her :-({{|= A massive RB211 was bolted on and the thrust reverser deployed in flight, twisting the airframe beyond repair. Standing in the front door and looking aft, you could see the twist on the airframe!

I was one of the team in 1977 that had the sad job of salvaging anything usable from her at Kemble to use on the rest of the fleet of C MK1's. She still had her undercarriage when I first saw her but the T tail had been removed and I remember the unique RED nose on the bullet fairing! This was to identify her from the line building when she was parked on a line of other VC10's . I have loved these aircraft since I saw the first and understood what it was as a child in 1964. It was gut wrenching to have to be tearing out the innards of something we trained to look after in the late 70's!

When we first went on board not one of us could bring ourselves to lift a tool and start on the gutting :( We were told "if you cant remove it fire axe around it as long as the part is not damaged" - so they gave us fire axes! When it came to is we all removed each part with respect and care with tools and piled the parts on 3 tonners. Later she was abused with cranes and JCB's but we werent there to see that - the SAS also blew some stuff up :cry: Someone cut the VC ribbon name out of the front fuselage - I have an idea who it was but never found out for sure!

So these slides are very special to see her FLYING at the Farnborough air show in 1970!

BLESS YOU GAXY! RIP
Attachments
G-AXLR3sml.jpg
G-AXLR2sml.jpg
G-AXLR1sml.jpg
Last edited by Murray Keene on Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jelle Hieminga
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Re: 3 slides bought on ebay

Post by Jelle Hieminga »

Nice photos, that's a good find! They do remind me of the shots I've got on XR809's page: http://www.vc10.net/History/Individual/XR809.html (near the bottom of the page). There were probably quite a few snappers who caught that pass.

On a related note, I'm still looking for photos of XR809 with her original engines, anyone with a lead on one of those??
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Murray Keene
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:14 am

Re: 3 slides bought on ebay

Post by Murray Keene »

yes I would like to see her with the original engines fitted but probably no photos of that as she would have been just another VC10 parked at Brize!

I see what you mean - these slides are very similar to the set you have on here!
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