I have been looking through a book (that was bought for me by my late first Wife some 40 years ago) which contains the profile of the Hawker Siddeley 801 Nimrod aircraft. That aircraft was based on the Comet 4C aircraft which had been operated by the RAF since February 1962. The RAF had, however, been operating Comet Mk2s since June 1956. The original Comets entered service with BOAC on 2nd May 1952 but the first flight of the aircraft was 27 July 1949. If the Comet was female it would be drawing its old age pension by now - no matter how many "facelifts" it had been given. The Nimrod variant first flew on the 23 May 1967- nearly 44 years ago whilst I was on my first OCU. In 6 months time I will eligible for the State Old age Pension.
If the RAF had persevered with well proven aircraft types in specialist roles then Coastal Command would have been operating with Consolidated Liberators well into the latter part of the 20th Century.