Visceral
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Published: Saturday, June 28, 2003
767 tanker takes to the sky
Company hopes hundreds will follow
By Bryan Corliss
Everett Herald Writer
EVERETT -- The first KC-767 aerial refueling tanker built by the Boeing Co. took off on its maiden flight Friday.
The first flight was routine and lasted just short of 2 1/2 hours, said Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel in Everett.
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group pilots will take the Everett-built plane on more test flights in the coming weeks. Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems unit will take the plane July 15 and fly it to Wichita, Kan., where it will be modified for use by the Italian air force.
The plane is the first of four Boeing will build for the Italians, and proponents hope the company will end up building 400 to 500 more of them over the next 20 years for the U.S. military and its allies.
Boeing has a firm order for one more for the Japan Self-Defense Force, which is expected eventually to take four.
But the first large order would be the proposed 100-tanker lease deal between Boeing and the U.S. Air Force. The final language for the proposed six-year, $16 billion lease will go to Congress for a 30-day review "essentially any day now," said Paul Guse, a spokesman at the St. Louis headquarters of Boeing's military airplane division.
If approved, Boeing would start work on the first four planes to the Air Force in 2004, with the first deliveries planned in 2006.
The tanker program would secure between 2,400 and 2,900 Snohomish County jobs, Boeing officials say.
The first squadron is to be deployed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane in 2006.
During a preliminary hearing before a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee last week, officials said the Air Force's existing fleet of KC-135 tankers need to be replaced with the KC-767s quickly.
Lt. Gen. Michael Zettler, deputy chief of staff for installations and logistics, and Maj. Gen. Paul Essex, director of programs at Air Mobility Command, said KC-135 maintenance costs are rising and it isn't worthwhile to invest more money in them. The planes have corroded and, with such old aircraft, there's a risk of problems grounding the fleet.
However, the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, said the old tankers functioned well in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite their ages, the planes have low flight times and could theoretically keep flying until after 2040, when some of the planes would be 80 years old.
The KC-135s were built by Boeing during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
767 tanker takes to the sky
Company hopes hundreds will follow
By Bryan Corliss
Everett Herald Writer
EVERETT -- The first KC-767 aerial refueling tanker built by the Boeing Co. took off on its maiden flight Friday.
The first flight was routine and lasted just short of 2 1/2 hours, said Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel in Everett.
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group pilots will take the Everett-built plane on more test flights in the coming weeks. Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems unit will take the plane July 15 and fly it to Wichita, Kan., where it will be modified for use by the Italian air force.
The plane is the first of four Boeing will build for the Italians, and proponents hope the company will end up building 400 to 500 more of them over the next 20 years for the U.S. military and its allies.
Boeing has a firm order for one more for the Japan Self-Defense Force, which is expected eventually to take four.
But the first large order would be the proposed 100-tanker lease deal between Boeing and the U.S. Air Force. The final language for the proposed six-year, $16 billion lease will go to Congress for a 30-day review "essentially any day now," said Paul Guse, a spokesman at the St. Louis headquarters of Boeing's military airplane division.
If approved, Boeing would start work on the first four planes to the Air Force in 2004, with the first deliveries planned in 2006.
The tanker program would secure between 2,400 and 2,900 Snohomish County jobs, Boeing officials say.
The first squadron is to be deployed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane in 2006.
During a preliminary hearing before a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee last week, officials said the Air Force's existing fleet of KC-135 tankers need to be replaced with the KC-767s quickly.
Lt. Gen. Michael Zettler, deputy chief of staff for installations and logistics, and Maj. Gen. Paul Essex, director of programs at Air Mobility Command, said KC-135 maintenance costs are rising and it isn't worthwhile to invest more money in them. The planes have corroded and, with such old aircraft, there's a risk of problems grounding the fleet.
However, the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, said the old tankers functioned well in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite their ages, the planes have low flight times and could theoretically keep flying until after 2040, when some of the planes would be 80 years old.
The KC-135s were built by Boeing during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
