After two previous snafu's, Boeing got the Air Force contract for the KC-46 tanker. That only took 7 or 8 years of well paid lawyer work to sort out. The original idea was to buy the well proven Boeing 767 airliner, take out the seats and fill the cabin with tanks. Somewhere along the line, the gold plate boys slipped in a few cost enhancements. They called for the aircraft wiring to be redesigned to USAF specs. Never mind that the commercial 767 has been flying safely for 25 years using Boeing designed wiring. Never mind that Boeing knows more about how to wire an aircraft than everyone in the Air Force all put together. And to add insult to injury, someone dropped the ball, and the first few aircraft off the line lacked the USAF spec wiring. Boeing last year took a $425 million pre tax charge for this. Cost enhancement at work, again.
And then someone slipped in a requirement for extensive flight testing. They are talking about making 65 test flights a month, which is a helova lotta flying. I doubt they will make that schedule. Never mind that this is a well proven commercial airliner with an excellent safety record going back 25 years, we are gonna flight test it like it is a brand new clean sheet design that have never flown before. Cost enhancement at work, again.
No comments:
Post a Comment