Woff1965, your friend is quite right. The wings and fuselages of the Nimrod where built long before the advent of CAD and CAM so had to be built in jigs and mated together by skilled trademen, whose job it was to file them by hand till they fitted. I believe they have also had problems with the wing flexing so much when the outer engine is placed on it's mountings that if the inner engine is not already fitted it will not mate up to it's mountings. There is also and very big problem with the aircrafts C of G so I am told. Don't know how reliable the information is but it would explain the no-fly situation.