Originally Posted by
Downwind.Maddl-Land
Was the airframe in for a scheduled maintaintence check ('C', 'D' or otherwise - would be nice to know!), that would have included a re-paint?
I have yet to see any official reference to the aircraft having undergone a scheduled maintenance check while at Cambridge. The MoD press release simply referred to the "conclusion of the refurbishment" initiated by the 2015 Strategic Defence Review, whereby the aircraft would be configured to carry senior ministers and the Royal Family. Obviously the interior refurbishment was completed some time ago - the aircraft has been carrying government ministers since 2016 and operating royal flights since (I think) 2017 - though I guess it might now be sporting a few new cushion covers ...
That the maintenance check would have been included in the Airtanker contract? ie, the cost of the check did not increase the cost to the taxpayer, other than, perhaps, the fee for the design.
See above. While the original PFI contract in 2008 would presumably have made provision for scheduled maintenance, and may well have covered periodic repainting of the aircraft, I doubt that anyone at the time foresaw or costed a requirement, 12 years later, to design and apply a Presidential scheme to the aircraft. That's what the £900,000 bill was for - the additional cost of not simply applying another coat of grey.
