Kind of ironic

[basys]

Hi Folks

I was going to post this good news yesterday, and got distracted.

Bad news today .

ATB
Paul

[Garry Russell]

They never seem to look to the future

Instead the revamp old designs in ever decreasing circles shutting up shop as the projects finally finish.

Garry

[DaveB]

I dunno mate.. I think looking to the future is what they have done. With an expected operational life of some 30 years and no new projects on the table after the MRA4.. there seems little point in keeping a manufacturing plant open. Had there been overseas customers for the MRA4 or even the possibility of any further sales, then of course to close the plant would be madness.

I suppose the MRA4 proves that multi-national projects like Airbus or the Tornado and Typhoon are the way to go for a country the size of our own.

ATB

DaveB

[Paul K]

All that time, effort and money for just nine aircraft. Its an impressive looking beast, and no doubt highly capable, but only nine ? Can anyone remember what alternatives to the MRA4 were considered ?

[TSR2]

If only Woodford had continued with the RJX.... there would still be plenty of multinational orders and work for the plant. And it was a dam sight more reliable than those bloody awful ERJ's. Short sighted happened when they distroyed the 146 jigs.

[Garry Russell]

Must have been somehting else Ben

The RJX was flying and there was the nice FlyBe order, but they just threw it away

They should have continued with that while something new was developed, same with the Nimrod....why can't they developed an all new aircraft that can be suitable for our specialised security none export use and a suitable platform for the rest of the world..

Garry

[DaveB]

Agreed. It's complete madness to throw a project away given there was nothing to replace it with. I dunno.. perhaps this was part of the overall plan to wind the company down to something very much smaller. If this was the case.. then everything makes sense. I bet the BAe Systems 'Good Ideas' department is pretty sparcely populated.

ATB

DaveB

[basys]

Hi Folks

12 not 9.

3 development aircraft,
plus 9 production, (1st being flown last week).



As a mate described the remaining original components -
- There's now't but fuselage, lad.



I hadn't realised,
Woodford shutdown was announced at least 18 months ago.

I suppose the MRA4 proves
that multi-national projects like Airbus or the Tornado and Typhoon
are the way to go for a country the size of our own.

Nah.....
Only moral from this one is -

Don't submit bids
based on opinons of the f**k**s in marketing and commercial,
or over-promoted political goat-sh****rs.

Lest we forget.........
Ocean, Albion, Nimrod, Astute, CVF, (not in any particular order),
and some of their bottom-lines are a long way from being finalised.



146/RJX cancellation
Possibly profitability -
- Manufacturing cost
- Purchase cost
- Operational cost
- Conflict with EADs partners, (product line interests in Airbus & Embraer).



HTH
ATB
Paul

[JimCooper]

All that time, effort and money for just nine aircraft. Its an impressive looking beast, and no doubt highly capable, but only nine ? Can anyone remember what alternatives to the MRA4 were considered ?

The original plan was for 21, which was controversial at the time (early/mid 90's) when we had 35 servicable MR2. We all thought 21 was going to be too few!! The cold war was still 'on' and we were flying patrols against a much increased threat at the time...loads of submarines and loads of surface ships including carriers. I suspect that 9 is now enough???
Most of the alternatives to the MRA4 were Orion P3 based solutions which seemed to make infinitely more 'military' sense as these were the aircraft used by USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Netherlands, Greece + half a dozen South American countries. Consequently cooperative operations and host nation support would be far easier to arrange. However British jobs were safeguarded by using BAe and ensuring that the project was over 8 years late kept those jobs going for even longer!

[Chris558]

One of the original options was for us to have re-conditioned Orions instead of the MR.4. Surely much more appropriate and economical in these post-cold war days?

Re Woodford's closure, very sad, as it was the home of Avro.