A little story about XR808

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Magnum
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:07 pm
Location: Wantage

A little story about XR808

Post by Magnum »

Back in December 1973, XR808 was on a global trip. The route was Brize - Luqa - Akrotiri - Gan - Tengah - Hong Kong - Guam - Wake - Hickam - McClellan - Offutt - Namao - Brize. The Captain was Squadron Leader Baldwin.
Having departed Brize on December 8th the crew were getting close to the end of the trip with only a couple of short flights to go before the final flight across the pond to Brize.
On December 17th, after a short hop from McClellan AFB in California to Offutt AFB in Nebraska, XR808 took off again to fly to Namao (Now Edmonton) in Canada. As they left the ground and started to climb, the tower reported white smoke trailing from one of the engines.
As the VC10 is perfectly capable of flying on three the decision was made to continue to Namao. After landing safely and inspecting the engine, the engineers reported fragments of white molten metal and a dead engine.
Being close to Christmas the crew were keen not to get stuck in Canada and a Hercules was promptly despatched with a new engine on board.
Under the supervision of the G.E.s the aircrew changed the engine themselves and were able to depart Namao on the afternoon of December 22nd and head home to Brize.
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