I do feel that the Government has moved in a direction of deflecting their decision based on cost grounds (a bad one in my mind but if there’s no money there’s no money) to one of slating the product. It does seem that Dr Fox has had a radical change of opinion from his letter sent to the PM before SDSR. He obviously thought his job was more important and once told the PM had made his decision it was better to shut up and fall in to line.
It should be noted that PA4 flew under his watch and therefore if it was unsafe at that time he should be liable for putting the crew and the UK public at risk. However the aircraft was safe and was certified to fly.
If only this government could be open and honest and stick to the hard decision making. They said we could not afford it, don’t suddenly change your tack and say oh its all the suppliers fault the products crap.
The product was not crap, yes it was technically challenging and the choice of reusing the fuselage made it more so. But the engineering teams managed to fit all new systems into the airframe, i.e Fuel, ECS, Hydraulics, EPDGS, Oxygen, Ice and Rain, Mission Avionics, Engines, Radar, landing gear, two man airbus style flight deck etc etc. These systems where all based on latest standards as used in the civil and military markets at the time, these have not moved very far over the last decade.
What Liam Fox and the government are now doing is discrediting the hard work of the many engineers who worked on this project and this could potentially have an effect on their future employment.
Yes blame the company for miss management but don’t blame the engineers because technically the plane worked.