Red White and Blue Voyager

[Jet II]

Originally Posted by Big_D

BoJo did not like the grey colour and decided to change it by spending a lot of money during the economic meltdown era. Not sure if this counts as 'leftist propoganda".

Not sure if it has escaped notice but the Government are spending billions trying to prop up the economy during an economic meltdown. Not going ahead with the planned check may have led to the MRO closing and even more people losing their jobs.

But at least the Guardian would have been happy...

[TEEEJ]

Nice footage filmed at Cambridge. See from 2:58 where something appears to come off from the port side near the tail. Possibly masking tape?

[MPN11]

Certainly does, TEEEJ. I wondered initially about a bit of wind-blown FOD, but that’s certainly come off the airframe.

[Bksmithca]

Cleaning rag or masking paper possibly? It came off the aircraft doesn't appear to be picked up off the ground

[dead_pan]

Just seen the beast on the pan at Brize, looking a little incongruous alongside its counterparts. The livery is a bit too bright for my liking, much better to have gone for a lower key, more classic design IMO. Looks like a LoCo/BA knock-off.

[Mr Mac]

Dead Pan
Not much more to say than that , I concur. Pretty poor for a country which promotes its creative skills companies "as being some of the best in the world".
Cheers
Mr Mac

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by Downwind.Maddl-Land

Was the airframe in for a scheduled maintaintence check ('C', 'D' or otherwise - would be nice to know!), that would have included a re-paint?

I have yet to see any official reference to the aircraft having undergone a scheduled maintenance check while at Cambridge. The MoD press release simply referred to the "conclusion of the refurbishment" initiated by the 2015 Strategic Defence Review, whereby the aircraft would be configured to carry senior ministers and the Royal Family. Obviously the interior refurbishment was completed some time ago - the aircraft has been carrying government ministers since 2016 and operating royal flights since (I think) 2017 - though I guess it might now be sporting a few new cushion covers ...

That the maintenance check would have been included in the Airtanker contract? ie, the cost of the check did not increase the cost to the taxpayer, other than, perhaps, the fee for the design.

See above. While the original PFI contract in 2008 would presumably have made provision for scheduled maintenance, and may well have covered periodic repainting of the aircraft, I doubt that anyone at the time foresaw or costed a requirement, 12 years later, to design and apply a Presidential scheme to the aircraft. That's what the £900,000 bill was for - the additional cost of not simply applying another coat of grey.

[TEEEJ]

ZZ336 up on QRA this morning.

Twitter

[airsound]

Landed at a secret Oxfordshire base at about 1058A. Interesting to see that FlightRadar24 has an up-to-date picture of it in all its red-white-and-blue-ness

airsound

[Wycombe]

Top trolling by the RAF to send Boris Force One on a QRA.

Great way and good timing to make the point that it is an operational tanker just like the rest.

[ScouseFlyer]

Or more likely a cynical publicity stunt to counter the adverse publicity-be interesting to see how often the aircraft is flown in the AAR role-not holding my breath!

SF

[Captivep]

Originally Posted by ScouseFlyer

Or more likely a cynical publicity stunt to counter the adverse publicity-be interesting to see how often the aircraft is flown in the AAR role-not holding my breath!

SF

Well, why don't come back in a couple of months and check out the number of AAR (or other "normal" tasking) flights it has, or hasn't, done? Not holding my breath!

[Door Slider]

Originally Posted by ScouseFlyer

Or more likely a cynical publicity stunt to counter the adverse publicity-be interesting to see how often the aircraft is flown in the AAR role-not holding my breath!

SF

To answer your question by someone that knows, it’s flown in the AAR role a lot.

[ICM]

Indeed, and I recall seeing pictures of it on a North Sea towline the day after it arrived back at Brize from Marshalls. As it's an aircraft in the core fleet, ought we not to expect it to fly its share of daily tasking as the engineers manage the fleet as a whole? And as to publicity stunts, the main media fuss has passed on with the only sustained interest being shown here.

[MPN11]

I never expected this thread to last as long as it has, and now perhaps it has run its course!

[Skeleton]

Originally Posted by ScouseFlyer

Or more likely a cynical publicity stunt to counter the adverse publicity-be interesting to see how often the aircraft is flown in the AAR role-not holding my breath!

SF

The RAF sadly do not have a fleet size that would allow them to leave any one of their aircraft on the ground because it is painted differently. You can be assured it will be flown as normal when not required on VIP tasks.

The rest of the ill informed guff spouted on the rest of this thread is an example of why i rarely post now. What happened to the days when the Mods removed posts that clearly had nothing to do with Military Aviation? This thread for a start would be at best 5 pages long.

[Trumpet trousers]

What happened to the days when the Mods removed posts that clearly had nothing to do with Military Aviation?

Well, at least the Mods deleted the wholly inappropriate post submitted by Brakedwell a few days ago.

[BEagle]

What happened to the days when the Mods removed posts that clearly had nothing to do with Military Aviation?

Easy - advertising! The more posts, the more clicks and the more the board owners can charge for all the adverts that infest PPRuNe and slow page loading on legacy browsers...

Or am I wrong?

TT - keeping well, I trust?

[Trumpet trousers]

Beagle, you have a PM

[Geordie_Expat]

Bit more aviation content than a bloody BBQ !