Nimrod fleet 'should be grounded'

[Notebook]

As usual this is a very old aircraft still in service:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7416627.stm

The UK government is having a right up and downer wrt to civilian reports on military matters, here's hoping the coroner wins.

N.

EDIT as Linguofreak points out at #6 below, this link has gone.

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, modernizing the Nimrod every few years can't go on for ever

But a very cool plane. I wish we would have it for Orbiter, would be a cool SAR plane.

 

[Andy44]

Modernizing the B-52 fleet will apparently go on forever. By the time the USAF projects finally retiring the aircraft, the type will have been in service for about 90 years or more, with some airframes being upwards of 80 years old since first rolling out of the factory. If this holds true, none of the people who who actually designed and built the aircraft will still be alive!

Modern airframes have pretty amazing longevities considering they were built within living memory of the very first airplane!

 

[Notebook]

It has a history, as the Comet airliner, but it should be replaced as an operational aircraft, its just too old to be flying.

N.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12291372

Perhaps the end of the de Havilland Comet, and this thread?
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet"]de Havilland Comet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

N.

 

[Linguofreak]

As usual this is a very old aircraft still in service:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7416627.stm

The UK government is having a right up and downer wrt to civilian reports on military matters, here's hoping the coroner wins.

N.

404 on the link...

 

[Notebook]

Sorry, should have made a fact of the age of this thread, and the aircraft!

N.

 

[Linguofreak]

Oops... :embarrassed:

I do question the wisdom of keeping individual *airframes* in service for as long as is often the practice, but aircraft technology is mature enough at this point that I wonder if models like the Nimrod or B-52 ought to be kept in *production* longer.

 

[Notebook]

Both moot points at the moment, the UK is skint(again), little chance any replacement would be indingenous, but I'd think an Airbus derivative would work? Just a shame to see a good design and a good looking aircraft end this way,

N.

 

[GoForPDI]

The problem with this is the possibility of closure of the RAF base which runs them, and the British Government in Westminster are not putting anything back into the community in Moray.

When the First Minister of Scotland, the leader of the Scottish Government, Alex Salmond is actually protesting to have this seen to, something is not right at all!

 

[Hielor]

I do question the wisdom of keeping individual *airframes* in service for as long as is often the practice, but aircraft technology is mature enough at this point that I wonder if models like the Nimrod or B-52 ought to be kept in *production* longer.

The design itself is obsolete. B-52s don't really have a place in a modern air force, they are relics of a time when ICBMs were less developed (for nuclear delivery) or smart bombs were less developed (for tactical delivery). Nowadays, an A-10 can zoom in and take out the target just as well with a couple of smart bombs as a B-52 could with a bay full of dumb bombs.