One item of historical interest attached to British Airways' Boeing 777s relates back to the flight testing phase when one of the 777 prototypes was at Edwards AFB conducting RTO (Rejected/Refused Take-Off) testing- an RTO test is the most demanding test of an aircraft's braking systems. The aircraft is loaded with ballast to represent a typical fuel/pax/cargo payload, taken up to takeoff speed, and then the engines are throttled back and the brakes slammed to stop the aircraft before it reaches the end of the runway. No thrust reversers/spoilers are used in the RTO certification tests. These are some of the most dangerous tests in flight testing as the brakes absorb tremendous amounts of energy, glowing red hot and often the tires will also explode. In an RTO test, the fire trucks stand by and do NOTHING for five minutes to simulate the time needed for them to reach an aircraft on the runway.

When the 777 was in flight testing, the Boeing and FAA engineers were preparing for the maximum RTO test called "The Big One"- this was the worst case scenario- full payload, maximum brakes, and brakes purposely worn down to remove any additional safety margin. As test preparations were under way, British Airways notified Boeing that they planned to use the 777 on the London Gatwick-Dallas route and this would require an increase in the payload weight and takeoff speeds (and thus maximum braking forces) than what the engineers were originally prepared to perform as "The Big One". It was BA's worst case scenario- an aborted takeoff out of DFW on a hot summer day and it was worse than what the Boeing engineers had considered the worst case scenario in the RTO tests.

Long story short, after a lot of hand-wringing, they went ahead and conducted "The Big One" using BA's Dallas parameters. The 777 was loaded to a takeoff weight of 632000 pounds, accelerated to 183 knots, then 100% braking applied as thrust went to idle. The 777 stopped in 4000 feet, the brake temperatures went off the scale past 3000 degrees Celsius, and as the 777 turned off the runway, smoke could be seen from the brakes as they glowed white hot.

With the fire trucks standing by for the required five minutes, the first tire blew (in a controlled manner using what's called a fuse plug in such emergencies- the plug melts and lets air out without a blowout) before the plane stopped. All 12 tires' fuse plugs blew and steam billowed out from the wheels as the fire trucks began to pump water on the undercarriage. The 777 passed "The Big One".

It was estimated that about 97 million foot-pounds of energy were absorbed by the brakes in this test. By comparison:

-A general aviation aircraft weighing about 2000 pounds uses 200,000 foot pounds of brake energy.
-A typical jetliner lands and uses about 3-4 million foot-pounds of energy.
-The Space Shuttle uses 30-36 million foot-pounds of braking energy when it lands at the Cape.
-A carrier landing can require as much as 74 million foot-pounds of stopping power.

Source: Twenty-First Century Jet: The Making and Marketing of the Boeing 777 by Karl Sabbagh. Scribner Press, 1996, p291-305.

While the long rivalry between British Airways and British Caledonian Airways is well-known, from 1978 to 1986 the two bitter rivals actually partnered together with the British Airports Authority to operate a helicopter shuttle service to connect interline passengers between London Heathrow and London Gatwick. Initially utilizing a Sikorsky S-61N registered as G-LINK and "Gatwick Heathrow Airlink" titles, later on both British Airways Helicopters and BCal Helicopters provided back up helicopters.

At the time of the service launch on 9 June 1978, the helicopter flight took 25 minutes to connect the two airports with 28 passengers on each run. The first flight left Gatwick at 0710 and the last flight returned at 2010 hours- uniquely, G-LINK was owned by the British Airports Authority, based at Gatwick with British Caledonian flight and cabin crews, administration and ticketing but the helicopter was maintained at British Airways Helicopters' base at Gatwick.

By the time of the route's last flight on 6 February 1986, flight times were only 12 minutes and 24 passengers were taken on each flight, a reduction of four seats due to the need for baggage space. A one way flight cost £21. The flights would be boarded with the rotors already turning and as such, the "Caledonian Girls" that were part of the cabin crew had lead weights sewn into the hemlines of their skirts to keep them from flying up in the rotor downwash.

The end of the unique service came at the instruction of the British government once the M25 freeway was completed.

Source: Aircraft, December 2009. "Gone But Not Forgotten...British Caledonian" by Bruce Hales-Dutton. Box feature "The Airlink Service", p41.