Purple:
Thanks! I thought I had seen pics of the Italian airplane with a Boomer pod, and thought the 46 was the first “virtual” boomer. Mea culpa.
I read about the buffeting problem in Aviation Week a LONG time ago. I think it was wing buffet, but not sure...might have been the boom itself. It was around the same time Boeing was having wing buffet on the 747-8. I remember thinking “How can a mature design, with today’s computer modeling, have a buffet problem?”
When I said “design decision,” I meant the Air Force decided they wanted it that way.
I read an article 20 years ago that said the great RIF of the early 90s got rid of all the acquisitions/Logistics guys. As such, when major contracts came up a few years/decades later..no one knew how to write them so the government wouldn’t get screwed...all the experience was gone.
Example: allegedly, the KC-46 originally (on paper) didn’t have an ILS or VOR in it...just a TACAN. The contract was written to have a TACAN....the intent was to ADD it. The Loggies assumed it would have a standard complement of civilian B767 instruments.
Boeing took the approach of “not specified, you get nothing. Want those instruments? More money.”
Again, long time ago, so I can’t verify it...but seems plausible.