Re: Why do we always re-engineer our aircraft??
If BWoS lost money with the A300 conversion programme, why is it that Elbeflugzeugwerke goes from strength to strength doing precisely the same thing? 't Bungling Baron's soft southern brother can't have got his sums right, I guess?
Whether the Brabazon hangar would have been suitable, post-MRTT conversion, for narrow-bosy final assembly, or whether additional facilities would have been required is a moot point; the fact remains that the core work force would have been capable of either task.
Nevertheless, although both the A310-300 with ACTs and the 767-200ER both came out extremely well in cost and operational assessment by MoD DFS a decade ago, the nonsense of PFI and Noo Labia's underfunding of the Armed Forces to support its own political adventurism has left FSTA years and years late. I recall a senior civil serpent confidently predicting "This programme will NOT slip"......
And before our tame Trot leaps to the defence of his Labour luvvy fellow-travellers, I doubt whether the Tory party would have admitted its invention of PFI-for-the-Armed Forces was a crock either...