Sounds good! Does anyone know how much airframe life XJ824 had left when it was grounded? Presumbably though XH558 was one of the “better” airframes that the RAF had hence it’s survival as the last flyer. Or is that too logical?
Urr my brain cells need to get into gear. I think XH560 was due to replace XL426 after the 1986 display season? XH558 was already on the dump at Marham.
Someone in the RAF was going through the disposal paperwork and noted that XH558 had more FI than XH560, so they swapped airframes for the display flight. XH558 was prepared for flight once again and then went up to Kinloss for a repaint.
Steve Bond – To go back to the question about the length of XH558’s future flying career, it is not airframe life that is the limiting factor, but engine life. They have 8 engines, but all have finite lives based on operating cycles, which cannot be extended.
I believe Rolls wants the engines dropped every 20 hours. Also they only have one spare nose wheel leg.
As Steve says, it will be the engines that call the shots on the length of display years.
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