Regarding the list of documents Brian seeks, I applaud his persistence.
By definition, we are talking about a period from, approximately, 1991 to 1997; give or take. The MoD has a nasty habit, and it is quite deliberate, of answering in the present tense. Typically, “The Chinook IPT has no record……” or similar.
But the Chinook IPT did not exist until the late 90s. I’d hazard a guess that they seldom reply “The MoD has no record…” I’d also guess they make no attempt whatsoever to track down either the people or files from the previous departments. (They probably don’t even know them). Here’s a few to start with:
Directorate Helicopter Projects (aircraft and HQ Mods Committee)
Directorate Air Radio and various iterations before being subsumed into AMSO (avionics/simulators and HQ Mods Committee)
Directorate Military Aircraft Projects (equipment HQ Mods Committee Secretariat records)
Directorate Military Communications Projects
ALS/PD (central authority for maintaining safety airworthiness of equipment – no stovepiping in those days)
DD/Avionics (RAF) – (who took over responsibility for avionic safety and airworthiness, but declared it a waste of money and didn’t fund it).
Defence Helicopter Support Authority
DHP and DHSA, especially, would have held almost all what Brian seeks. It is inconceivable that Boscombe threw out their records. The relevant Design Authorities/Custodians would have their copies. If they don’t, it’s a breach of contract. If they don’t have a contract, how is the build standard, safety, and configuration control etc maintained? If a contract existed, and was cancelled (see DD/Avionics above), what happened to the records? Most companies would submit a bill for storage. Not just the aircraft DA, but the DAs for all the equipment. There should be multiple copies of most of this. On more than one occasion, the supposed “Authority” has denied the existence of records, only for me to ask a DA for access to his archives and find the info in minutes. One such system is, I believe, fitted to Chinook.
Also, the numerous reorganisations over the last 20 years have provided a God sent opportunity to destroy embarrassing records on the pretense of creating space. The move to Abbey Wood and transfer to DHSA were classic examples. Those with previous experience hid their files until they could get them scanned.
Any admission, or claim, that some of this doesn’t exist or can’t be found, is prima facie evidence of the lack of an airworthiness audit trail. (The SI in particular. Odiham, Fleetlands, St Athan, Llangennech, ATP, anyone?). This, of course, has never been in doubt.