Should the Raf have kept a complete Nimrod AEW3 in a museum ?

Of course we have to preserve a Nimrod, but lets make it a Maritime one. It’s about the only big aeroplane that we regularly display, the boys had to tone the display down a bit after the Canada crash, but it’s still an impressive old bird!

The AEW3 was a good airframe with bad radar/systems. I would rather seen on the ‘Comrods’ (Comet airframe Nimrod systems) that were at Farnborough and Wodford preserved. But they faded away in the early 90’s.

Here you go – whilst working at RAF Abingdon, on Red Nose day a nose cone from one of the AEW3’s was painted up as the link below shows you!!!

http://www.angelfire.com/ab7/abingdonfayre/raf/SAVE0027.JPG

I think if memory serves me rightly it was 1991 and this chap was taking it around the Station.
I do somewhere have a few more pics of the Nimrod AEW3’s being scrapped at Abingdon, will have to dig them out.

www.abingdonfayre.latest-info.com

If the MR4 programme continues, the remaining MR2 airframes will most likely be scraped. Maybe a better bet for long term preservation would be one of 51 sq, R1 ‘special ops’ birds, these three have recently had new electronics fitted, and I do not believe they are due for MR4 type upgrade.

DOUGHNUT

preserving a Nimrod

I agree that there should be a Nimrod airframe preserved and it may be that one may got to a museum as the order for MR 4 has been cut by 2 so the remaining MR 2s may be preserved but I doubt it. There was a Nimrod MR1 prototype in the now demolished 13 Hangar at BAe systems at Warton which would have been ideal for preservation but was sold to the highest bidder for scrap and subsequently chopped in two and carted off on the back of two low loaders. I think only the cockpit was saved as a mock up for the MR 4.

I believe they have got the wings to fit but they are having problems with the engines ( they are too heavy and making the wings bend!)

Radar makes a good point, a preserved and well presented AEW3 nose, cockpit and fusaluge section would make an impressive exhibit. Althought not very pretty to look at the technology and the ‘black boxes’ still require recording and preserving. Just because the RAF did not want to spend the money to make it work, its like burning the books because you don’t like the story.

I belive a bigger mistake than breaking up the AEW Nimrods, was not saving the Comet test bed that used to fly from RAE Bedford.

DOUGHNUT

Personally, I would say it’s good enough that a nose section has been preserved. I didn’t know there was one at Carlisle – I must go down there sometime! It would be nice if an entire aircraft had been preserved, but at least a nose has been kept in order to tell the story.

To those who say the AEW3 is of no importance, I would say that the story of the AEW3 is an important part of British aviation history and is similar in some respects to the TSR2. Just because the AEW3 never saw operational service does not make it irrelevant. I’m sure no-one here would advocate getting rid of remaining TSR2 aircraft and components! The decision to end both projects were major blows to the British aviation industry. OK, the TSR2 was a greater success than the AEW3, but both had the rug pulled from under them before they were properly developed.

No, never entered service so largely irrelevant – far better spending ££ on something with a service history.
And have BAe (or whatever they call themselves these days) managed to fit their computer designed wings to the hand-built 1960s fuselages yet, or is the Mk.4 going to turn into another AEW.3?

No point, it isn’t a remotely significant type.

We can’t preserve everything, so much better to get the Beverly indoors and torch the failed AEW3.

Later preserve one or two ex-operational Nimrods by all means.

Moggy

How come the aircraft was the problem?
It was stated at the time that the radar was over-budget and late with no end in sight. I never heard anything about airframe problems.
As for buying bl**dy 707s, I’m still foaming at the mouth now.

There was an apparently complete MR3 at Finningley until it closed. Presumably it was cut up and scrapped when the base closed.

My feeling, for what it is worth, is that one should have been preserved since too many subtypes have been lost over the years and this is, unfortunately, another addition to a long list. Prototype, development, and trials aircraft have been badly treated over the years and, whilst it does invoke the big ‘plane problem, I would rather we could say, at some point in the future, why did we preserve that than why didn’t we…

Flood.

The “scrapped” AEW’s were robbed of every possible common item of equipment to keep the MR.2/R.1 fleet going. When I ran ASF at Kinloss I got a letter from the chaps at the Solway Museum asking if we had any bits we could give them to fill in “holes” in their aircraft. I felt like asking them if they could supply me with bits! The whole Nimrod story is one of bad decision after another, but we talked about this before. The Nimrod has been a good aircraft and despite some appaling decisions over the last few years continues to soldier on. If there is an MR.2 spare at the end of the day it should be preserved, but where? we are into the big aircraft problem again.

Andrew – You might well find that when they eventually get the MR.4 up and going there are precious few ‘original’ MR.2’s left !

Well yes they should have saved one and it should have been on display at cosford. It might not seem important now but who knows in 20 years time it might be the only Nimrod variant not to still exist.

There is still a fuselage at Stafford in use for fire training I believe.
The aircraft itself was the main problem – from talking to avionics
people the radar equipment was more than capable and it didn’t suffer from the blindspot that the AWACS has . They tried to cram too much equipment into a narrow fuselage and it simply didn’t have enough cooling capacity for it.
Sad but another British ‘balls up’ – and no I don’t see any need to preserve one.

I remember seeing three or four of them quietly rotting at Abingdon in the late eighties. I took a couple of photo’s of them but these are up in the loft. One day I’ll get round to scanning them in…

Anyway, should they have been preserved? I tend to favour Bruce’s view. Although for sheer “Ugh, what the hell’s THAT!?!?” value, it would have been useful to keep one, if only to scare errant children. 😀

Absolutely not

The aircraft was an irrelevance, which never went into service anyway. I would hope that one of the MR series aircraft is eventually preserved, as it is for that role the Nimrod will be remembered.

The AEW was a disaster in every sense of the word!

Cheers

Bruce

Don’t they have 3 nose cones at Donna Nook as the line up marker for the range?