Originally Posted by
WHBM
I think you will find that RN was first to be put through a substantial D check, which cost a fortune and made them decide it wasn't worth doing its compatriots, but being sunk costs they hung on to it. If I recall correctly this got stated in a feature on Britannia in BBC's Money Programme, shot in the Luton hangar at the time it was being completed.
I’m not sure it was the Money Programme, but was definitely about ageing aircraft maintenance in the light of the 1988 Aloha 737 and 1989 United 747 accidents. I remember the voiceover saying this was the first time a UK airline had allowed filming of major aircraft maintenance. Aircraft would have been 20 years old at the time... hardly a big deal now... but obviously this was the first time that generation of aircraft got to that milestone and there was a lot of learning still going on about ageing aircraft maintenance.
I’m sure I had it on VHS. Long since gone!