They won't fit, full stop. It's never been an option and never would be. The only ones that would fit are the type that are currently installed. The 'alternative engines' suggestion has been covered and regurgitated more times than most of us care to remember.
Thanks Tim - apologies again, I was unaware that it was old hat. I was reading the Wiki history of the Vulcan yesterday and noticed that the differing evolutions of Vulcan had had different engines, so wondered if the Concorde type might be adaptable to the airframe. Sorry for my ignorance on the subject.
Jim
Hi Jim,
The Olympus 593 was development tested using
VULCAN.
VULCAN was used as a test bed for quite a few different engines including the Turbo-Union RB199 as installed in the Panavia Tornado, the engines were usually in an underslung housing, sometimes partially intruding into the bomb bay. The 593 isn't a compatible type for installation, not least because it uses afterburners whereas the
VULCAN never did, (the incredible Concorde was the only passenger carrying aeroplane to utilise afterburning technology).
I think certainly a significant issue with the Technical Authority companies, (apart from money), is the low residual engine life, paucity of spares and restrictions on re-manufacturing major components. They do genuinely need to consider a lot of the significant risk factors here and the worst case scenario would be a major component failure resulting in
XH558 coming down onto a crowd during display. Worn engines obviously make this more likely. Structural failure is also a risk factor but in my mind this isn't as likely a scenario as an engine disintegrating.
If, for example, an exercise were undertaken to tool up for remanufacturing major components such as the Jet Turbines to fully recondition all 6 engines owned by the trust to 'as new' condition, with perhaps some additional spares being produced at the same time, the levels of expense would almost certainly be several £Million.
I know it's very easy to state, and I certainly don't have spare £Millions squirreled away, but I think the money SHOULD be found to do the work necessary to give this plane another decade of flight. It will be very difficult for the Trust to generate such funding, I think that the Government must step in and, for once, spend the public's money on something that the public values. This will only happen if the Trust shows willing and engages with appropriate Ambassadors / Patrons - the type that doors open for!
