The first two prototype RAF aircraft were unfinished Comet 4 airliners.
They were Comets, they were never in service as Nimrods.
You might have said the Concordes engines had been fitted to the Vulcan.
A Comet nose fuselage section was modified to incorporate the larger flight deck windows and the integrity of the new design tested in a water tank.
This nose was never subsequently built in to a Nimrod.
It is a conversion of the De Havilland Comet, the world's first jet airliner.
It was not a conversion in the accepted sense, nor was it a modification. It was a design based on
Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Jones, then a flight trials engineer, was the first to test the Nimrod XV230 after it was brought into service in 1969. He said yesterday the plane was designed to fly over the North Atlantic to track Soviet submarines and was never tested in the kind of extreme heat it faced in recent conflicts.
Who am I to disagree with a flight trials engineer, OTOH maybe both our memories are fading with time. In 1970 an early production Nimrod, without avionics as they were not ready, was flown out to Singapore for high temperature trials as the aircraft was intended from the outset to operate a detachment from Singapore. This early aircraft was fitted with electric heaters to simulate equipment heat loads.
All I am trying to do is to steer the thread along a narrow path and ensure that inaccuracies are minimized and claims founded on fact.