The British Aerospace or Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod MRA.4 the Nimrod that never made it
The British Aerospace Nimrod MRA.4 was a cancelled British long-range Maritime Patrol and Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft developed from the earlier Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 but sadly multiple cost overruns and design trouble killed it but while the cost overruns are the fault of the BAE Systems, the design trouble goes much father back, how?
Well I'll explain....
The Nimrod MRA.4's problem goes back to the original De-Havilland Comet 4Cs as each Comet was basically its own unique airframe because of how De-Havilland built them at the time which meant there was no commonality of parts which was the same problem on the Nimrods.
So let's start a discussion
If the De-Havilland Aircraft company had made the De-Havilland Comets the same as ideally they should have done and designers had the imagination to conceive that that the Comet would be used as an MPA.
Would this have helped the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod MRA.4? and if the British had managed to make this Nimrod MRA.4 work then would the RAF have ordered the P-8A Poseidon MRA.1?
what happens when a Hawker-Siddeley Andover and British Aerospace Advanced Turboprop airliner are mixed together
Well you get this
The British Aerospace Advanced Turboprop-Rear Loader is what you get when you take the ATP's fuselage and shorten it the mate the rear of the Hawker-Siddeley Andover and honestly its probably a decent light airlifter although why the RAF never used it to replace HS.780 Andover.
Somehow had the RAF used this as it would have likely been replaced by British Aerospace 146-200QC C.3 or the British Aerospace 146STA
First sorry for my misleading post earlier, I'd not seen most of my old Cosford photos in years
So this the Harrier GR.9A at RAF Cosford not the Kestrel FGA.1 as i stated before which is also at the same museum actually
Shame the UK couldn't afford to keep the Harrier going until 2018 as originally planned
Yes you heard that right the British had an A-10 of their own the British Aerospace P.101 Blitz sadly it was never put into production but was built from redesigned Jet Provost T.5 airframe with the jet exhaust removed and the canopy redesigned.
The single Rolls-Royce Viper Mark.201 Turbojet would be replaced with either two Rolls-Royce Viper Mk.600 turbojets generating 8000ibs of thrust or a single 5540ib thrust Rolls-Royce RB.401-35 Turbofan or US-made Garrett ATF3 Turbofan
The P.101 Blitz was to have a single 30mm GAU-13/A Rotary Gatling Gun firing an unknown number of rounds of PAU-14 Depleted Uranium Rounds like the rounds used in the A-10's GAU-8/A Avenger.
Sadly I haven't been able to find an image on google of this aircraft but there are diagrams in Chris Gibson's Typhoon to Typhoon book on Royal Air Force Air Support Projects since 1945
From the pictures in the book this is a description of what I think would have been the most likely final design
A redesigned Jet Provost T.5 airframe with 30mm GAU-13/A in the nose, at the rear were a twin tail and two Rolls-Royce Viper 600 turbojets with four underwing hardpoints.
Side Note: I suspect the P.101 Blitz would've had its Rolls-Royce Viper mk.600s replaced with two Rolls-Royce RB.401-35 Turbofan giving 11,080ibs of thrust
