unusual fact!

Toledo1

Many years ago when I was flying on one of my many flights to South Africa, British Airways flew me out in a series 2 747 Jumbo. It was called the “Stoke-on-Trent”. Well the point of my story is, that they had to carry a spare engine under the left wing. They took the front off it, so to cut down the drag I imagine. I have a picture to prove what I say. We had three engines under the left wing and two under the right one. We had to make an unscheduled stop at Nairobi, as the plane used more fuel with the extra drag. We had more than a 3 hour delay in Nairobi, as the replacement pilot couldn’t take over fore more than 3 hours. (rules about number of flying hours, as he came in on another plane before). The take off from Nairobi was much rougher than the one from Heathrow, as the new pilot tried to make up time. The spare engine started to shake about and the plane lost height just after Nairobi (a stall). So the pilot eased up a bit. We arrived many hours late at Johannesburg. The 747 is an amazingly powerful plane. I love them!
The reason for what they did, was that an engine on a British Airways Jumbo had gone on fire leaving Durban on way to Johannesburg some nights before. They needed a spare engine out there.