Originally Posted by
scotbill
Did Hawker Siddeley designers end up in Seattle?
Quite possibly. I do believe the Trident Autoland team moved on to Lockheed in Burbank, which is why the L1011 Tristar Autoland came out so well.
Regarding re-engining, not worthwhile on the Tridents which, once there were no more being ordered/produced, just dropped down to scrap value, with the engines (for spares) representing much of this. Not worth significant investment.
The Boeing 727 did develop a re-engining programme for the JT8D. It was always a challenge to replace the centre engine, but the final solution was to replace the two outboard engines, only, with more powerful Rolls Royce Tays (as on the F100 etc), and run the centre JT8D at reduced thrust. Dee Howard in the USA did this conversion to the UPS 727 freighter fleet, which are still operating.