Cobham

[petet16]

Having seen the turmoil currently afflicting Cobham at Bournemouth I wonder what impact this may have on the proposed out of service date of the VC10.

[chirtman]

I wonder. XV104 was supposed to be retired last month, then again last week. 106 and 108 in september ish. So there are already delays, I wonder if this is related.

[ICM]

I'd imagine that someone from Brize Norton can comment more knowledgeably, but we have been told repeatedly in other threads that the VC 10's in-service life is now limited by the cessation some time ago of major servicing at St Athan and that, even using whatever powers there are to extend dates, the latest aircraft cannot be used beyond circa mid-2013. Thus, I very much doubt that the decision to move tanker conversion of the later A330 Voyager airframes to Spain will have any effect at all on that position. As is known, there are immediate issues still to be resolved regarding the release to service of Voyager's full AAR capability and that situation may argue for keeping each 101 Sqn aircraft going to the last possible day - but, barring something entirely unexpected, the 10s cannot be kept beyond sometime next year. And remember that 216 Sqn's Tristars, not without their difficulties, also figure in the overall AAR capability picture.

What is required, quite simply, is that the early-production Voyagers be brought into service with their intended range of capabilities as quickly as possible - something that appears to be proving more easily said than done.