Nimrod (ex-De Havilland Comet)...?

Question

Is it safe?

Answer 1

Is anything?

Answer 2

According to government sources they are quite safe. I am assuming that is because they filled in the square windows on the Comet and re-named them Nimrods. Several 'fell out of the sky', Oli when in passenger service.

Answer 3

The Nimrod is approaching 50 years old and should be considered worthy for replacement, a converted avro jet would be sufficient and would spare embarrasment from the RAF on foreign aircraft aid.

The Nimrod although modified and in its glass cockpit display form, still operates with the same airframe and structure.

This poses concern over microscopic strutural fatigue, if the RAF want to keep their airworthy certificate, then mandutary inspections using x-rays and god knows what instruments would have to be compulsory to prevent yet more embarrasing fatalities.

Answer 4

Yes

Answer 5

Nimrod (ex-DH Comet) is absolutely safe.

Perhaps, you have at the back of your mind, the adverse publicity the Comet got during its initial years due to so many crashes. Once the problem was identified, however, the Comet became as safe an aircraft as any in the world. It gave many years of successful service and saw service all over the world. When the time came for the Comet to be superceded, it was taken over by the Ministry of Defence and converted to the current Nimrod. It has served equally well in various roles including maritime reconnaissance, anti-sub warfare, aerial surveillance platform and air to air re-fuelling role. It has proved to be a rugged and reliable aircraft, and has gone through many stages of refurbishment.

The legacy of the Comet still lives with the Nimrod.

Answer 6

They are OK as long as they are not refuelled in mid air.I think the crew should have parachutes just in case.

Answer 7

Correct, the safety problem of the Comet were fixed before design was changed to build the Nimrod. But the main stream media kept running stories of the Comet crashes (Mk 1) Mk 4's gave years of outstanding service Flying Higher and Faster than the Tanker derivative (707) that Boeing sold.

Answer 8

Maybe in the 1960s.....

Answer 9

oh you heard that on the news earlier too, well lets check the actual facts shall we, how many have fallen out of the sky, how many times has one flown, how many people have deid as a direct cause of the nimrod. think it pretty much speaks to itself, like concord out of how many flights did one bkow a tire yet they were classed as unsafe, more boeings crash then any other heavey plain yet they are used in comercial flight were problems are dramatically worse

Answer 10

Well obviously not, they said  they were not air worthy at all on my local radio station, but is that by todays ultra safe regulations or what used to be ok.

Answer 11

The stories of the Nimrod's poor safety are based on its developement from the Comet. The De Havilland Comet was the first jet airliner. It had a pressurised cabin and flew at altitudes much higher than previous aircraft. This presented an unforseen problem. Te Comet had quite large square windows. Unfortunately, the cyles of pressurization caused metal fatigue at the corners of these windows that eventually led to a structural failure and the loss of the aircraft. This was discovered and corrected, and all subsequent Comets were totally safe. Unfortunately, public confidence in the aircraft was impossible to regain.

The Nimrod is based on the Comet with some substantial structural changes. The most important one is the lack of windows and addition of some reinforcement. This makes the Nimrod a stronger airframe than the Comet it's based on. It's actually a safer aircraft than the Comet was, as evidenced by its very long service record.

Answer 12

The Nimrod MR2, as mentioned in the news today, is an old aircraft, but is 'safe' considering the accidents to flight ratio. The Nimrod MRA4, (optimistically called Nimrod 2000 by BAE systems in 1996) the one shown on the BBC news today is a re winged MR2, it's an 80% new aircraft including a state of the art fuel system - so this one is very very safe