British Aerospace Nimrod AEW3

The British Aerospace Nimrod AEW3 was a proposed airborne early warning aircraft meant to give the Royal Air Force radar cover for the air defence of the United Kingdom. It combined the existing Nimrod maritime patrol airframe with a new radar and avionics package developed by Marconi Avionics, after cheaper schemes such as converting Andover transports were rejected. British Aerospace and GEC Marconi were joint programme leaders, and the first airframe was rolled out in March 1980 and flew in July of that year. The project proved hugely complex and expensive, with a mission system that failed about every two hours, and cost around one billion pounds before it was cancelled in December 1986 when the RAF chose the Boeing E-3 Sentry instead.