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Old 28th Aug 2014, 06:39
  #16 (permalink)  
tucumseh
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: uk
Posts: 3,225
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Hard to remember much about specific airframes as an engineer, bit I seem to recall that 66 was the last aircraft to make it out to Akrotiri for GW1. It had been in at NMSU for a major and then rushed through EWAD to join the party.
I wouldn't know the tail number, but in the August (90) we were given orders from God+1 that she MUST fly by a certain date, which was way ahead of schedule. On one morning I let 39 contracts for the secret and devious kit by A5 memos (no e-mail then), shattering the myth that only commercial can let contracts. Not one contractor sought payment until mid-91. Each delivered on time, although there was a hiccup as one went in to receivership; but we pitched up in Coventry, barged past the lawyers and accountants and retrieved our kit. A major problem was excessive vibration caused by a D4 being out of balance. It was scrap, because the beancounters hadn't let us have the necessary dynamic balancing kit (think wheel balancing on a very large scale with many kgs of weights), but Lothian Education Council came to the rescue and loaned us theirs. I bought our own after that and hid the costs from the BCs. LOTS of people contributed to that little exercise, and were successful despite the best efforts of High Wycombe. ("I haven't had a memo we're going to war, you're not getting money.") EWAD were superb.
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