It Wasn't Like That in My Day! Can Nimrod's Reputation Revive?

Our resident veteran Chuck Unsworth reflects on gentler happier days for the aircraft that became the RAF's Nimrod spy plane

Despite the tremendous intensity of action, even today’s warfare is not continuous contact or permanent patrol.  On active service there are lulls or points in the day when soldiers may be able to relax and switch off as best they can.  Soldiers do this in a variety of ways.  An essential part of my usual preparation for manoeuvres or active operations was the selection of a good paperback book.  I used to read voraciously whenever the opportunity arose.  Indeed I still enjoy the process of choosing books to read on long journeys, where others are doing the navigating and piloting.  For me now that is largely when taking holidays.

In the late ‘60s a girlfriend and I took the seven hour train journey from Singapore’s Keppel Road Station across the Straits at Johore Bahru then up the west side of Malaysia to spend a few days in Kuala Lumpur.  It may therefore have been unwise to select ‘Virgin Soldiers’ by Leslie Thomas as my reading material – and perhaps for several reasons.  The novel, set in Malaya and Singapore a very few years before my arrival, describes an attack on a train by communist terrorists.  In my time, what with the Vietnamese war and the Confrontation, there remained a serious concern that things might flare up again in Malaysia.  So at times the surrounding lush green vegetation seemed just a little too close to the permanent way, as our diesel train gently rumbled along.  The track wound its way through the rich green jungle, rubber plantations, past tin mines, oil palms and pineapple farms.  The open carriage windows were fitted with louvered shutters, allowing a constant breeze that provided a little respite from the tropical heat and humidity.

Kuala Lumpur then was much smaller than it is now, but the old main railway station, an almost mosque-like building designed by Arthur Benison Hubback, is beautifully preserved – as are several of the former colonial buildings, many built in this intricate ‘Mughal’ style.  The Malaysians have had the very good sense to retain and maintain these fine examples of culture and heritage, tourism being recognised still as a vital part of the national economy despite recent phenomenal growth in the industrial and commercial sectors.  The city, always bustling and prosperous, contrasts nicely with the more laid-back urbanity of Penang further North on the coast.  We spent those few days enjoying the local sights, sounds, food and general excitement before making our return journey.

We had decided that it might be fun to fly back to Singapore.  It’s a short hop – less than a couple of hours – so we booked our seats with Malaysia-Singapore Airlines on an elegant De Havilland Comet 4.  The airport terminal building, on a raised bank overlooking the single runway, proved the ideal vantage point to observe the Comet making its graceful landing.   

In the 1950s some earlier versions of the Comet had failed disastrously as a result of metal fatigue.  A team led by Sir Arnold Hall, Director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, eventually tracked the problem down to cracking of the fuselage at stress points around the original rectangular windows which lead to catastrophic depressurisation.  After reconsideration these were redesigned as oval or circular windows - and several other modifications were made. 

However, by the late 1960’s the later versions of the aircraft had proved themselves and were in operation with several airlines.  So we simply relaxed and enjoyed MSA’s hospitality.  Typical of most short-haul flights, once aboard we hardly had enough time to settle in our seats before the stewardesses in their very pretty sarong kebaya uniforms served drinks and a meal, circulated with the Duty Free and very shortly thereafter checked that we were cleared away ready for landing.  My choice of reading material had been rendered redundant.

Some years later, back in the UK, I became re-acquainted with Comet.  This time it was the military modification, the Nimrod, which had been adapted from the original to carry out maritime reconnaissance and rescue support.  It was rather more bulbous - the original clean lines being somewhat distorted by various military gizmos – but the aircrews were always complimentary about it, and it did sterling service.  Now, where there had been rows of plush seats there were electronic consoles containing banks of surveillance and communications electronics.  The stunning stewardesses had been replaced by a small crew of very masculine servicemen staring intently at screens, occasionally changing places or getting up to stretch and walk about to revitalise circulation.  Spending hours in front of screens is not a healthy lifestyle.  And, to cap my disillusion, there was no Duty Free.

The latest version of Nimrod, the MRA4, is apparently due in service ‘at the turn of the decade’.  It’s the Comet on steroids.  Like many bits of military kit it has been modified to the point where it bears scant resemblance to the original.  Much of the modification has been ad hoc, relatively crude and dictated by operational necessity.  I guess the original designers would have been fascinated and appalled – probably in equal measure – by what has happened to their swan, which has now been turned into something resembling a dodo.

Comments

[john Wood]

Chuck's recollection of the S'pore tp KL train is very evocative. I was there a few years before him by the reading of it; we still had CT alongside the track. Great news that KL station has been left alone. All he misses to mention are the breakfasts on T-bone steak at the Coliseum in KL.
I also flew Comet when it was the RAF trooper. A fine plane.
Thanks for the memory.

[Neil Marshall]

Given the long term outlook for oil prices, on a lifetime cost basis it would be cheaper, even now, to scrap this dinosaur and buy a dozen of the modern twin engine Airbus or Boeing airliners currently coming onto the market as airline fleets drastically prune their fleets. They would be more dynamic, more reliable, easier to fly and position and far cheaper to maintain. So the reason with bringing into service a 60 year old airframe is what????

[Chuck Unsworth]

@ John Wood

T Bone steaks, eh? Yes, superb. Perhaps you'd recall Nasi Goreng at one of those fine roadside foodstalls after an evening's 'entertainment'. More later, I think....

@ Neil Marshall

I'd agree. A slight word of caution though. Perhaps we should all recall the Boeing/Chinook acquisition fiasco - a matter which I know that Mick has taken a keen personal interest in, and which (in my biased view) is largely attributable to MoD and political incompetence.
However, I do dislike the prospect of being obliged to rely on others. We should be crystal clear that 'Allies' - no matter how long-standing - always have their own interests as their priority. In the end, we are on our own.

[William29]

Although the Comet incidents were before my training ,we did as young apprentices discuss and look at the problems. There were wing profile and air intake problems at high angles of attack (against the air flow). The mechanincal failures were our interest.
It does seem odd to an engineer that square cornered windows were used, it was common knowledge even then that a corner is a stress concentration point, this is usually why a radius is used, thus reducing the concentration.
The other point noted with the windows was that the rivetting was done by hole punching not drilling. This produces less than perfect holes for the rivet to expand into. Many components on airframes are "stress relieved" before final machining, this of course could not have been done around areas that had been punched. Once a crack starts it can quickly propogate through stressed areas, including the stressed skin of the airframe. On less important areas the crack can be stopped by drilling a hole at the extremity of the crack, this would not be best practice on an airframe. Having said all that, we made a mistake on the S5 replica(which had been common knowledge in the industry many years before). The rods to the control surfaces in the wings were bolted to fishplates which in turn were bolted throught the Canadian spruce wing spars. The 2BA stainless high tensile bolts although sleeved through the spruce there were small areas where the bolt was near to the spruce. When the test flying had completed a strip down was ordered by the CAA rep. On taking out a sample of the 2BA bolts, we saw an area of black etching ! An old hand from the CAA who had been in the industry since Icarus had discovered that twice Iota is the maximum angle of glide looked on and said "static" and went on to explain that the wing had become a battery and the etching was the result. We were in the "you stupid boy" category of engineering that day ! When I joined the regular army I had visits from REME reps, lots of nice gentle chats, on explaining that I was going to be an infantyman or nothing there was a strange ritual practised by these people of pointing at their own heads and gurning. Very odd !

[edradour]

Chuck said………….

“A slight word of caution though. Perhaps we should all recall the Boeing/Chinook acquisition fiasco - a matter which I know that Mick has taken a keen personal interest in, and which (in my biased view) is largely attributable to MoD and political incompetence”.

I think more people should take time out to study and appreciate the similarities between the Nimrod accident (and others) and the Chinook fiasco. Forget the fine detail – the common denominator is that the MoD has well proven processes, procedures and regulations governing airworthiness (Nimrod) and procurement (Chinook) which were not implemented properly. (And of course, the former must be included in the latter, but often isn’t). The reasons for these failures should be investigated. It’s not as if it is difficult. There have been some notable success stories on infinitely more complex programmes, so SOMEONE is doing it right. If you read the associated Select Committee and Audit reports, the MoD has brazenly listed all the “new” initiatives it is implementing, which has taken the heat off them. Unsurprisingly, most of these initiatives are long mandated policy anyway.

This is not rocket science. In fact, the default position is what I describe and a deliberate decision must be made to scratch this from the requirement. That’s why I’d come down on the side of MoD incompetence, rather than political. While there may have been an element of “time and cost, at the expense of performance” from the politicians, few have the knowledge to delve into such detail. Nor, it would seem, does MoD, otherwise they wouldn’t trade out so much performance that the product becomes unsafe!!