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Bad day for Boeing

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This Sucks

Even though I fly an Airbus right now (my company's choice, not mine), I drive Fords and have never owned a foreign made car. It sucks that our armed forces/government will purchase tankers from a Foreign company and then say "buy American" out of the other side of their face. Lets contribute some more to our growing trade deficit. Yea, I know some of the parts will be made in America and assembly will be in AL, but it is still a foreign company with its HQ in France. Of all countries...why France? It's not like they've done anything but disagree with or hamper every initiative/policy the US has had since WWII. It is truly a sad day for Boeing and the good old US of A.

P.S. I don't shop at WalMart either.
 
Protectionism is not a solution. FedEx is a great example of the fact that this is a global economy.

Boeing is no saint. There is a long line of US military contractors who have ripped off the US tax payer. I hope that we strike the best deal possible. Seems to me that Boeing came to the plate with an old aircraft that lacked the capabilities of its competitor.

Given a similar product (or even slightly better foreign product). I say go USA. But blindly buying US products can encourage laziness (read the US auto industry from the '70's to the late '80's). And Boeing's fraudulent behavior when initially trying to sell the 767 tanker is evidence that they aren't a completely magnanimous pro-US company.
 
It really sucks when you have to use your military equipment to go bomb the country that made your military equipment.
 
It was chosen because KC-30 sounds cooler than KC-767! Actually, this is all about the military-industrial complex. Throwing a bone to Northrop to keep them afloat. Boeing can survive a blow like this but Northrop couldn't. All part of the government welfare program to corporations. But, if Boeing really wanted to win, why an old airframe like the 767? I think they thought they were just going to keep the production line going and slap a boom on the back - complacent bid in my opinion. Ain't the lowest bidder award program great!:(
 
The POS in this story is the KC767 that Boeing has sold to the Japanese and Italians. They are at least two years late with lots and lots of problems. Boeing deserves to lose this one. Should convince them to clean out the gene pool. In the end Boeing should come out ahead if they look to future improvements and discard the 767 based platform. FWIW
 
learherkjay said:
Actually, this is all about the military-industrial complex. Throwing a bone to Northrop to keep them afloat.
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Then Northrop needs to build airplanes instead of "modifying" French ones.
 
That would be nice, but they were already competing with Boeing that had a developed platform and had orders for it's tankers with Japan and Italy. So, they went and looked for the only other company in the world that makes big airplanes. Costs to develop an entirely new airframe would not have made them competitive. Hence my point. The best book about this is "Skunkworks." Lockheed's former #2 explains how the bureaucracy of the government has hampered company's abilities to make a good product, at a good price, and on time. The military-industrial complex has created only one or two mega-defense companies left and they live or die on big contracts like this one.
 
Euroweenies!

F-France and their little buddies!!!!!! The Airbus is complete garbage! This whole deal sinks to high heaven! What adds to the stink is that we seem to be doing this in other areas as well....

The Eurocopter is built in GTR-and damn if we are not equipping our armed forces with those things as well. We are in bad shape when we give our economic enemies (France and friends) more firepower to destroy us with!

Just look at who goes and builds every stinking reactor for any freaking rouge nation out to destroy western civilization! They then express "outrage" when we or our buddies in Israel have to go and break what they they built for these clowns!

-ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE!!
 
Benhuntn said:
It really sucks when you have to use your military equipment to go bomb the country that made your military equipment.
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Maybe if members of your service hadn't taken bribes from Boeing (and gotten caught) you would have already had an American tanker.
 
Kharma Police said:
Maybe if members of your service hadn't taken bribes from Boeing (and gotten caught) you would have already had an American tanker.
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If you're a card carrying US citizen, shouldn't this read "our service".

Any chances this deal will get blocked in congress like the Boeing lease deal?
 
WNC Flyer said:
If you're a card carrying US citizen, shouldn't this read "our service".

Any chances this deal will get blocked in congress like the Boeing lease deal?
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"Card carrying US citizen"?!? That's kind of ironic since Europe has its citizens carry national ID cards. But yes, since I do pay taxes then it is "our" Air Force; and "no", I do not like it stealing from me.
 
The KC-45A Tanker is based on the EADS A330 MRTT (Multi Role Tanker Transport). [blah blah blah] This latest success in a series of competitions worldwide confirms the EADS-based military tanker as the best solution available on the market. Following its purchase by the Royal Australian Air Force, the MRTT solution has been officially ordered by the Royal Saudi Air Force and the UAE Air Force, as well as selected by the Royal Air Force of the UK.

http://www.eads.com/1024/en/pressdb/pressdb/EADS/20080229_eads_kc-30.html

It appears that the KC-45 will be flown by the world's biggest air froces.
 
Northrop Grumman is a US company and most of the jobs will be Americans working on it all over the country. With assembly in Alabama. The NG/Airbus design was by far better as it carried more fuel than Boeing's version. It also can carry troops and heavy equipment. Boeings version of the tanker did neither. Seems like a no-brainer. Boeing could have modified their design, but thought that they would get the contract because they are big bad "Boeing." In my opinion, they got cocky and lazy and lost.

Check it out at:
http://www.northropgrumman.com/kc45/
 
PCL_128 said:
Yeah, that's great. McCain worries about a $300 million bridge to nowhere and a few billion on a military tanker contract, but he's a-ok with spending a few trillion on a failed war. Yep, that's fiscal responsibility for ya. :rolleyes:
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$300 million dollar bridge to nowhere? I must be missing something.... What the heck are you talking about?
 
piav8r said:
$300 million dollar bridge to nowhere? I must be missing something.... What the heck are you talking about?
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You must not be watching many of McCain's speeches. He talks constantly of the so-called "bridge to nowhere," which was a proposed bridge to connect Ketchikan, AK with Gravina Island. The project would have cost $320 million supplied through congressional earmarks. McCain and some others raised holy hell about it and got the project killed. Meanwhile, the Iraq war is now projected to cost us $3 trillion. While McCain worries about a million here and a billion there, he's more than willing to throw trillions into the toilet that is the Iraq war.
 
If you google Ted 'The internet is a bunch of tubes' Steven R-AK you will see about his $300 million bridge to nowhere in AK.

As for the decision, you don't think the matter of Darleen Druyun and Boeing CFO Michael Sears doing a turn in prison for defrauding the US Govt do you-

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1103/112403cdpm1.htm

Focus on the real problem hear, corrupt Boeing officials, that influenced the decision.
 
I'm still upset about us awarding a contract to an American Company that is selling a foreign designed and built airplane. Our Aviation industry is one of the few remaining crown jewels of American Industry.

But I've been doing research into this and one thing is starting to become clear:

The KC-45 is an outstanding tanker that will serve our military well, while the KC767 was an ill-conceived Boeing profit strategy that has many problems and is not a very capable tanker at all. (Bad flutter issues that haven't been resolved, and serious payload/range issues, especially when compared to the competition.)

So what do we want? Boeing profits and success, or for our military to once - get the right airplane for the mission?

I vote the AF should get the best airplane. Boeing has nobody to blame but themselves.
 
Was a 777 tanker ever looked into? I know it would dwarf the KC-135 and approximate the size of the KC-10, but I'm not sold on the need for a small tanker anyway. Seems like when it comes to tankers, more is always better. More fuel, range, cargo payload, etc. Probably not ideal for Boeing, as their 777 production line is plenty busy whereas the 767 line....not so much.
 
I, too, am not happy about us giving a huge contract away to a foreign country, especially when we should be doing everything possible to keep the jobs here in the states. I mean, buying foreign aircraft for our military??!?!!? What the.......! I've always admired and liked Boeing products.
Having said that, I believe that Boeing deserved this rude awakening. Their arrogance killed the deal. The bottom line is that Boeing had a way inferior product, period! Our aircrew deserve the best and Boeing tried to collect what they thought would be easy government cheese. JMHO.
 
erj-145mech said:
No, the KC-45 will have final assembly in KBHM. The Air Force is not buying KC-330's.
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Well FWIW they are peddling the KC-30. When I first saw the ad sign outside of Scott I thought that Boeing sure looks like an Airbus!
 

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