BOAC VC10 Flapless landing 1970
In 1970 on 21st December I was a passenger from Nairobi to London on a BOAC VC10 G-ASGG.
That trip was my first experience of the new "Airport Security", namely a chap ran a metal detector over your body and you had to point out your bag on the tarmac and only then would they lift it into the plane. I think this was not long after Dawson's field and Leila Khaled.
The flight went via Rome, presumably NBO non stop LHR was a bit tight.
Approaching London we held for quite a while before the Captain made a PA to advise that the flaps would not extend at all, (the trailing edges were certainly fully up and we took his PA to mean leading edges too.) Several passengers were moved from the back to the front to move the C of G forwards and we landed at LHR with a posse of fire engines and a few ambulances though no "brace brace". (Not easy getting more than one ambulance at LHR these days!)
The Captain's name was double barrelled ending in Stewart, may have been Middleton-Stewart.
Question 1 was this a very unusual technical problem for a VC10? On the 707 at the time they never even practiced total flap failure landings. Or was it a known glitch and trained for like a stab runaway on the 707?
I never flew the VC10 professionally although I have flown another British T-tail. Someone mentioned the "whiffle tree" the other day which brought back memories. (No I'm not talking about a pub but the hydraulic bias system peculiar to British T-tail planes.)
Question 2, the navigator’s sextant glass hatch on the VC10, was that BOAC story about the vacuum hose genuine or just folklore?
Just wondered if my ramblings might jog a few memories. Happy days, end of the golden age.