An RAF engineer, with an interest in Nimrods, as his son was killed in the one which caught fire and exploded in Afghanistan posts :-
What I know about the MRA4 program over the last year or so:
1. Some bright spark put the main control box for the ailerons at the back of the bomb bay - open the doors and catch a bird and you go for a swim (at the very best!)
2. The company tried to deliver the aircraft to the RAF without a sonobuoy clearance (hence you may as well use Sentry maritime modes)
3. The flap brackets completely failed (on I think 2 out of 3) after just a bit of flying (this one is not mentioned by the ST = Sunday Times))
4. The nose gear had an issue with poor tolerance (just another indicator of shoddiness - see above and below for more)
5. Hot air, fuel and an ignition source inside the same zonal area without a means to extinguish ( - shame on you) and that was in the wing.
6. A rudder that was too small and gave a pitiful amount of authority for VMCA and VMCG issues when asymmetric (I think they have got on top of that one).
7. An aircraft without an icing clearance - not too clever for something based in Scotland and that hunts in the Iceland-Faroes gap!
8. Issues with build quality, where things were not torqued correctly or wire locked off correctly - so much so that the company were asked to go back and look at everything again plus get new signatures for all of the work
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