idg,
total mismanagement, and politics meant she did her last scientific flight 28th March 2001. Been stripped out (butchered?) & collecting dust at EGDM since then, with only a very few trips. Typical QinetiQ accounting means she is too expensive to fly, and cheaper to hire an aircraft in from EGDL!
We however are now at the mercy of UK universities plc, and Wate of Space, with a second hand 146, still in bits up North, and way behind schedual, with BAES scrambling to get out of the contract, realising they can't deliver all of contract.
Meanwhile, the Profs have thier egos so far up where the sun don't shine, that the sensible option of going back to the best aircraft in the world for this job, is just not even being considered.
Final ironey is that EGDM is now being looked at as one of a large number of 3rd party contractors to operate the "new" 146, if it ever gets off the ground, on behalf of waste of space, who have decided there is no money in it, and this type of operation does not fit their corporate profile.
