fifteen years to put new donks and systems into existing airframes is preposterous
Not entirely accurate. The fuselages are original but the mainplanes were newly built to accommodate the new engines and there lies one of the big problems.
As rigger 1 states;
the original aircraft, supplied by the customer, were all different, having being hand built. Ask any Nimrod engineer and they will tell you that dimensions can vary by up to an inch in certain areasAs
The new mainplanes had to be re-engineered fit the existing fuselages or fuselages re-engineered to fit the mainplanes. No mean task.
No! I am not and never have been a BAE employee. Just interested in keeping the facts straight. (Even though this is a rumour network).
Phil.