For every fighter jet, there's a big old bird to supplement it..
One fricking cold February night at the former RAF Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire UK, we had a night dedicated to taking photos of the big old birds.
Used by civillian carriers such as British Airways, the Lockheed TriStar was aslo converted for air to air tanking by the RAF, Entering service with the RAF in 1984 and eventually retiring from servicein 2014..
All of the surviving airframes are stored at Bruntingthorpw, but they are under threat as the site which used to hold fast taxy days and currently is home to the cold war collection has recently been purchased from the Walton family by Cox Automotive, who are putting an end to all the aviation stuff on the site as they look to store cars on the runways..
Now the smaller aircraft can be moved via road.. Big birds like this just can't easily be moved..
https://www.bruntingthorpe.com/aviation
Handley Page Victor, http://www.victorxm715.co.uk/ This bird is one of only 2 that is kept to a standard where it can fast taxy down the runway.. The other is at Elvington - York.
On one of the fast taxy runs, this airframe took off by accident... (not my vid)
Vickers VC10 K4 ZD241. Originally operated by BOAC and later British Airways as G-ASGM, the aircraft was later converted to a 3-point Air-to-Air Refuelling tanker and served with the RAF from 1995 until 2013.
