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mating season: boeing 767 tanker makes first contact

boeing-kc767-first-contact-0107a.jpg


Boeing is competing for a contract to replace the US Air Force's KC-135 Tanker fleet. A final Request for Proposals for the KC-X program is expected soon followed by a contract award announcement in the summer.

Boeing has produced nearly 2,000 tankers in its history and currently is building four tankers each for Italy and Japan. The KC-767 has logged more than 200 flights and 600 hours during its flight test program.

(Editors Note: Boeing is competing against Northrop/EADS who are competing with an Airbus A330 derivative. Boeing is agressively going after this contract with an alternate proposal based on the Boeing 777. Now that - is one big tanker!)

Posted @ January 28, 2007 07:59 PM | Current Affairs

Comments

So is ETOPS capability now a virtual requirement for tanker operations?

Posted by: JD at January 29, 2007 07:07 PM

Anyone know what happened to the KC-10? I had a friend that was a crew chief on one of those and had some pretty good things to say about it's ability to haul cargo/personel as well as fuel. Not sure if that is an issue at this point....

Posted by: TBinSTL at January 31, 2007 12:20 AM

Its around. Its just that there arent many of them.

the 767 and 777 combination is going to be pretty hard to beat. i know that northrop/eads are going to pout about the contract, but the point is that boeing has put a pretty powerful package together.

Posted by: frank martin at January 31, 2007 07:58 AM