Thread: 777 tanker?
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Old 06-18-2009, 12:13 PM
  #7  
smee
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Default Trying to make it happen...

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure I'm not far off base here. Boeing's initial bid of the 767 (for the most part... in actuality, it was a combination of several different Boeing aircraft) was directly designed to cater to the requirements stipulated by the Air Force. Once they were screwed over by the seemingly incompetent acquisition team, they essentially threw their hands up and said "we can convert whatever you want to a tanker. So here's a 757, 767 and 777 proposal." I know that there was a lot more to it than that. In fact, after the Airbus was picked--in the initial round--they had said that they wouldn't even submit a bid if they were to get another opportunity. In watching the Congressional Review on television, I can't say I blamed them! It was pretty embarassing to see the Air Force delegation (limited to the civilian-types TRYING to answer questions) illustrate their complete lack of knowledge when it came to Tanker capabilities and, more importantly, their own requirements that they had spelled out in the request for bids (eg when comparing capabilities of the "new" tanker to what it was replacing, they were using KC-135R and KC-135E interchangably). Hopefully, they've learned something since the last round, but I can only hope I'm not being overly optomistic.
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