shoddy workmanship
So not realising that their own aircraft, built in their factory, had different sized fuselages and then building wings that didn't fit - hardly great engineering...
So designing an aircraft that had too small a rudder for the aircraft's new engines for VMCA and VMCG - hardly great engineering...
Delivering an early aircraft without the wing-bolts correctly torqued and wire-locked - hardly great engineering...
Putting fuel unions under tension so when undone they "twang" apart - hardly great engineering...
Designing a modern aircraft with fuel, oxygen and an ignition source within the same zone in certain areas of the wing - hardly great engineering...
Trying to deliver a maritime patrol aircraft without a sonobuoy clearance - WTF over...
Having a main flying control circuit at the back of the bomb bay that is susceptible to a possibly "game over" bird-strike - hardly great engineering...
Having to re-engineer the flap brackets because 2 out of the 3 cracked completely on a flight test - hardly great engineering...
And these are just some of the "Horror Stories" I have heard from some of the Nimrod aircrew and engineers who were working towards bringing this POS into service. I even saw pictures of some of these "horrors" and I get the impression that there were many more.
From these "horrors" I wouldn't expect to find them on homebuilt aircraft (see
Safety Spot Articles) but certainly not on a professionally designed and built aircraft in the late 20th early 21st Century!!!
I believe that the Govt made the right decision before we accepted the MRA4 on incredible risk for it to ever enter service as planned plus the
chance (probably remote) that we might kill another crew - however, the capability loss is another matter and unacceptable. It should be covered off with something else sooner rather than later.
Sadly, the ConDems did what NuLabour should have done when the program ran into trouble in the early "noughties", but didn't have the b0ll0cks to do so!
The B Word