For me, the idea of flying in a Trident or a VC 10 brings waves of nostalgia
But to hear that they are still being used to ferry troops to & from war zones …
We used to call it the VC-When? Its unreliable time keeping was caused not by any kind of mechanical problems but as a consequence of the vagaries of BOAC scheduling
I wonder if passengers on RAF civilian flights still have to sit facing the rear?
In my experience only the Trident did this on commercial flights, & then it was only a few seats. I had the misfortune to occupy one once. Not an experience I should care to repeat, it was very disconcerting
The reason for the RAF rule was supposed to be passenger safety. ‘Everybody’ knew that many of those unfortunate enough to be involved in an air crash might have survived the impact, what killed them were the abdominal injuries caused by being thrust forward against the seat belt
Years ago now, though, I heard a radio programme about the Kegworth air crash. One of the contributors was an abdominal surgeon who had been called in, with his team, expecting to be very busy: they sat mostly just twiddling their thumbs
So I wonder if seat belts technology now means that what’Everybody knew’ is now just an old wives tale
