Originally Posted by
Two's in
Never mind the systems issues, having the engines buried in the wing root creates significant design, performance and maintenance challenges. Going from a turbojet to a turbofan and increasing the space required just exacerbated those issues. During the upgrade program it was discovered that no two airframes were alike, despite BAE's claim of Nimrod "being the best understood airframe in service". The design was flawed from the start, and the Ostrich mentality that ignored the obvious was responsible for the cost and delay still impacting the maritime capability today.
The bespoke nature of the airframe was a problem on the AEW3 when individual transition pieces had to be made to suite the standard radome. There were still a few of us boring old f****s around who mentioned this when a new wing was planned, completely ignored.