10 Reasons the Vickers VC10 was the Keith Moon of Jetliners

British gods of speed and thunder

Too loud, too fast and too thirsty for mainstream acceptance, Britain's VC10 was the Keith Moon of jetliners. Both Moon and the VC10 thundered onto the world’s stage in 1964; one was the best jetliner of its time, the other was The Who's wild-man, the most influential drummer of his generation. While Keith Moon was frequently 'hijacked' by substance abuse, the VC10 suffered a disproportionate number of actual hijackings and other acts of violent freakish misfortunate. In getting to the bottom of this incredible story, I enlisted the help of an aerodynamicist, an aeronautical engineer, a professor of flying noise, an oil-rig worker – as well as a leading comedian/historian/percussionist. Oh, and a former Sea Harrier pilot for good luck.

Talking about my s-s-second generation jetliner…let's find out why the VC10 was the Keith Moon of jetliners.

10. The Who versus ‘The Wey’: A need for speed

The VC10 was born close to Weybridge in Surrey, England at Brooklands. This was the centre of British speed, both motor racing and aircraft production. Brooklands was where the Hurricane took its first flight, and was instrumental in the creation of the declinist poster-boy, the cancelled TSR.2 bomber. Keith Moon was a centre of speed in his own right in both his drumming and drug of choice, in an interview he described his favourite food as ‘French Blues’ a slang term for Dexamyl amphetamines. Moon was born in Wembley, one time home of the Aircraft Operating Company.

The VC10 was one of the fastest airliner this side of Concorde and the Tu-144. Its never exceed speed was a spritely Mach 0.94. There is a story of a medical emergency onboard a VC10 en route from South Africa being addressed with a FL430 flight at a hair-singeing Mach 0.95. This would have even given Elvis' speedy Convair a run for it money.

While the American Boeing airliners were getting progressively slower by generation, British airliners were getting faster.

9. High-hat

Whereas the 707, in the guise of the E-3, often wore a ‘high-hat’, it was something Keith (and the VC10) would avoid like the plague. We asked historian and drummer Al Murray his thoughts:"Moon eschewed conventional technique it's fair to say, as best recorded in Mono so that it sounded like one great big drum kit. As studios became more complex he got harder to get down on record. He used no hi hat, (until really late in his career) which is really odd; his style is best described as "lead drummer".

CREDIT: Paul Tremelling

Credit: Chris Haywood

The VC10 was considered for every conceivable military role including airborne early warning, but not with a large dish on the top but a big 'bollock' at the front and one at the back. According to Chris Gibson, author of Nimrod's Genesis: RAF Maritime Patrol Projects and Weapons Since 1945, "A rotodome for a VC10 is a stupid idea and never looked at. The single bollock was the original alternative to the Fore Aft Scanner System (FASS)."

8. Noise

The VC10 wing was cleaner (producing lower drag) than rival designs as it avoided the drag of attached engines and their pylons.