Not an expert, but have a little experience of MB seats in Hunters, Canberras, Hawk & Meteor, but it does seem that the AIIB have hung their hat on what is easily traceable, i.e. Seat cartridges & waiting for ‘experts’ to neutralise/make safe the seats & canopy explosives. I must admit that I thought fire fighters were taught how to make safe ejection seats without having to wait for some expert to travel from some remote corner of the world…..mind you there is now a proliferation of different types flying in the UK all with subtly different mechanisms, Russian, American, MB, cant think there are many with Folland seat experience, then not to mention the canopy….. Now think about the Vulcan & Canberras, the latter usually with slackish cables behind the seat that set off the canopy &/or the drogue gun….
I can see why the CAA are worried, but the military are of course usually expecting a crash to have an aircraft where the seat has already left the aircraft, very few hit the ground with the seat still on its rails & the gun not fired.
Then there is the safety case which then must reflect the insurance cost & as stated in the report the loss of expertise & no real civvy equivalent of an armourer.
Sad to say this will ground a lot of these aircraft in civilian use, but in the end it is for the safety of the spectator or innocent bystander in this modern legalistic society. As an aside how many of the pilots in these aircraft have the ejection seat training or even the survival training imposed on service fast jet personnel.
Keith

” A crack in a tiny electronic module caused the system to send repeated warning alerts to the pilots, who responded by resetting the system.”

A fault like this could be due to bench testing showing NFF (No Fault Found) as the unit was probably not stressed by heat or cold on the bench as in the air.
Had lots of problems with Jindivik Transformer Rectifier Units until luckily found water across a couple of junctions. Normally this water would evaporate before being able to inspect item. This led to a change in design of the cooling air inlet!
Keith

If the assy number is 496 or 498 then it could be from a Viking. Googling the Vickers type numbers gives 496 to the 3 rd prototype & 498 to BEA Viking 1A. The interesting bit though is the Steady/flash Nav lights labelling which I would associate with a military type – unless its from one of the Kings flight Vikings? It is also possible that that assy could be from a Valetta using existing drawings?
Brooklands Museum any help?
Keith

Interesting question, but in trying to do a bit of internet research I have not found out when or to what aircraft the TKS fluid system was introduced. I know it was fitted to Vickers Vikings & to DH Doves. So if Vikings were they on the Mk I fabric/geodesic (Wellington?) wings, or only on the later MkIa metal wings?
Keith

For those interested in Flight Sim 2004, FSX or P3D, my model of ‘EDU & ‘AYR is available for free download at FlightSim (dot)com. (Possible also soon via PCpilot?)
Keith ( Sorry about blowing own trumpet, but someone has to…… )

John, I no longer have coreldraw, but I think it might read .dxf format or even .dws. If it does I can save AutoCad drawings in those formats for you.
Keith

Oh – what joy to see the progress made on her, good luck Rex. Hope my Flight Sim model does justice to her grace.
Keith

As far as I remember there were 10 airframes under construction, (plus 3 test front fuselages) & No 5 (XR223 ?) was to be fully instrumented & to have all of the Nav & armament systems installed – so there was a lot of additional orange wiring going in. I can only report up to Jan 64, so do not know after that for sure.
Keith