The Nimrod Review - Official Documents

The Nimrod Review
Lesson Learned – Age Matters
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The reality is that aged aircraft and their systems need more, not less, care and attention. The careful gathering
and analysis of information about the aircraft, its systems, maintenance history, and extensive ‘trend monitoring’
is critical to the safety of aged aircraft. Equally important is good husbandry, so that those charged with
maintaining the aircraft do not become inured to, or unsighted on, defects.
The lesson learned from the Nimrod XV230 case is that age matters. The following matters are all the more
important as an aircraft gets older:
(1) Good trend monitoring: The BOI demonstrated that the Nimrod fleet showed an increasing leak rate
which was not detected because of a lack of sufficient trend monitoring. The Nimrod fleet was not put
on the Logistics Information Technology Strategy (LITS) because of its impending OSD. As Garry Copeland
from British Airways pointed out, however, with aged aircraft, it is all the more important “to capture the
maximum amount of data available and study the data sets carefully.” 25
(2) Good husbandry: The recent revelations of the forensic teardown of XV236 by QinetiQ show that the
standards of husbandry in the Nimrod fleet have shown a marked deterioration in recent years. 26 This is
unsatisfactory and potentially dangerous because it makes it more difficult to detect deterioration in aged
systems, e.g. wiring, pulleys, hydraulics, piping, couplings, insulation, detection systems etc., if an aircraft
is not cleaned and looked after properly. For this reason, good husbandry in aged aircraft is all the more
important.
(3) Good attention to spares: The Avimo seal episode and other evidence shows the increasing difficulty of
ensuring the continued availability and quality of spares for aged aircraft. For this reason, it is all the more
important to pay good attention to the spares situation with aged aircraft.
(4) Good attention to skills: The evidence shows there was a general Nimrod engineering skills fade in the
decade before XV230 (in both the Service and Industry) as knowledgeable individuals died, retired, or
moved on to attractive jobs in the private sector. Specialist engineering skills and knowledge are all the
more important with ‘legacy’ aircraft. For these reasons, it is essential to ensure good attention is paid to
retaining and replenishing skills relevant to aged aircraft.
(5) Good corporate knowledge: The evidence shows the level of corporate knowledge and retention of
information, e.g. in relation to the AEW3 Project, was unsatisfactory. The older an aircraft becomes, the
more important it is to ensure good record retention.
(6) Good forensic teardown: Teardowns of systems in legacy aircraft can be very illuminating, as demonstrated
by the recent QinetiQ teardown of Nimrod XV236 (which may be the first full aircraft systems ever
conducted worldwide). It should be noted that the USAF started tearing down systems in 1991. 27 The
MOD introduced AAA for systems in 2006.
Numerous air forces around the world, including the US, Canadian and Australian Air Forces, have ‘legacy’
aircraft and are grappling with the same age matters. Greater international liaison and sharing of best practice
would be fruitful.
Recommendation 23.1:
I recommend that the MOD ensures that greater consideration is given to the age matters set out in
this Chapter. In particular, the specific lessons learned from the extensive work undertaken following
the loss of XV230 must be carried across to other aircraft types if the MOD is to operate safely an
increasingly aged fleet of aircraft.
25 Garry Copeland, Director of Engineering, British Airways, 2008.
26 See Chapter 15 and the summary of QinetiQ’s findings by OC Eng RAF Kinloss, in his report to AOISTAR on 18 September 2009.
27 See US EC3D teardown and Functional Systems Integrity System (FSIP).