ZD949 fiasco....
October 2006 - Marshall Aerospace is awarded a £22M contract to upgrade the RAF TriStars' avionics and FMS including a 'glass cockpit' as the 'MMR upgrade'. This should have been a relatively low-risk programme as it used elements of the C-130 cockpit upgrade already underway for the RNAF.
November 2007 - ZD949 arrives at Cambridge for the trial installation with a planned completion date of Q3 2008 at which time the second TriStar would begin conversion.
2008 came and went.
2009 came and went.
January 2010 - ZD949 finally makes its first flight with the MMR upgrade.
October 2010 - SDSR indicates that the TriStar will start to leave RAF service in 2013; TriStar MMR programme is to be discontinued.
December 2010 - After 100 hours of flight test, ZD949 finally passes MoD review and is due to be back in service in Spring 2011.
2011 - Due to the change in out-of-service date now planned for the TriStar and with the A330MRTT due in service by the end of the year, ZD949 remains at Cambridge in a pristine state under 'storage' and is to be 'reduced to spares' - a euphemism for being scrapped - as it would be too expensive to convert it back to its original state.
October 2011 - A330MRTT now 'Voyager' fails to meet release to service date; now expected to be 'sometime in January 2012'.
January 2012 - Voyager still not in service.
February 2012 - Voyager still not in service.
So, after already being 2½ years late, an expensive MMR update for the TriStar was cancelled due to SDSR and Voyager timetables. Nearly 18 months later and pressure on the TriStar fleet remains intense as Voyager is still not flying with the RAF; the VC10, despite once carrying royalty, is no longer deemed acceptable to carry passengers due to the decision of the MAA.
Please correct this post if I've included anything incorrect.
Last edited by BEagle; 19th Mar 2012 at 10:09.