Kevin Martin (back to web version) |
SendPosted on 10/31/2003 7:03:37 PM PST by RobFromGa
Flight of fancy?
Kevin Martin (back to web version) | Send
October 31, 2003
Congress is currently debating the long-range economic impact of leasing several converted to tanker767 aircraft from the Boeing Corporation.
While members of Congress are currently engaged in purely partisan finger-pointing over the cost of such a deal, the Air Force Pilots must continue to use it current medium range tanker aircraft that in some cases is 40+ years old
The KC-135 is a venerable old stalwart that has severed its nation well in wartime and peacetime, but this aircraft has been in need of replacement badly for the last 10 years.
In the early 1980’s Congress funded the reengineing of KC-135’s with more cost effective jet engines that ran quieter than the original engines, this gave the KC-135 the ability to carry more fuel and conduct longer range refueling missions as well as upgrade avionics. The KC-135 also has passenger and cargo capabilities as it is built off of the Boeing’s 707 airframe.
The 707 airframe remains one of the most popular airframes in the world, but this airframe that was designed in the early 1950’s is beginning to show the signs of its age with stage 1 or 2 engines, body cracks, and are near the end of their usefully flying lives. Surviving non-military 707’s have mostly been relegated to cargo transports here in America as well as passenger and cargo transports in third world nations.
The 707 is also a narrow body airframe and it cargo and passenger capabilities are limited and overshadowed by later Boeing Aircraft such as the 747, 767 and 777.
The Congress now has a duty to see that the KC-135 is finally replaced, because it was the Congress in the 1990’s that slashed military budgets in their short-sightness at the end of the Cold War to the point that it left the Air Force in the catch 22 of upgrading existing fighter/bombers forces first as well as the funding of the new F-22 which caused the Air Force to forgoing the purchase of a follow on to the KC-135.
Now that our Armed Forces are engaged in the War on Terrorism throughout the world Congress needs to fulfill its duty of providing the Air Force with a update and modern support aircraft that has the ability to move more fuel, cargo, and personnel in to a theater of operations in the most cost effective and best way.
Boeing is offering to the Air Force the KC-767 (adapted from the airframe of it highly successful long range, wide bodied 767 Aircraft). The KC-767 would bring to the Air Force a modern up to date aircraft that has greater range, cargo and fuel capacity and capability over the KC-135. The KC-767 also is less damaging to the environment than earlier models of the KC-135 (which had the non-honorable title of old Smokies).
The KC-767 also brings to the Air Force the ability of dual piloting and maintenance given the procurement of the Boeing 757-500 by the Air Force recently. Any pilot that is rated to fly the 767 also has the ability to fly the 757 with little or no cost, as well as any maintenance crew that is rated at the 767 can also get rated to do maintenance on the 757 with little or no cost, so in the long run this provides the Air Force with the ability to have one maintenance/pilot crew that is familiar with two separate aircraft and thus save the Air Force unneeded cost over the long run.
The KC-767 also has the ability to operate from shorter runways than the original KC-135 and in our ongoing War on Terrorism this will bring a needed support aircraft closer to the main theater of operations, which means strike aircraft can operate long over the target and put more tonnage on target.
The price tag for the KC-767 maybe high in the short term, but in the long run the KC-767 can be an invaluable tool and protection of American lives don’t have a price tag.
After 40+ years it is time to give the KC-135 the proper send off that it deserves and Air Force Officials need to quickly end any wasteful study that would see the KC-135 flight beyond the next 6 years. I have seen articles stating that the Air Forces is looking for a way to keep the KC-135 flying for up to 80 years and for Congress to even have the Air Force studying such a plan is a disgrace and they are going back on their duty to see that America has a fight force that is second to none.
Kevin Martin is a member of Project 21's National Advisory Board and an environmental contractor in the Washington-Baltimore area. Project 21 is an African-American leadership network working under the auspices of The National Center for Public Policy Research. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.
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While a testimony of the basic soundness of the 707 airframe, this quote boggles the mind. 80 years. I know the analogy is far from perfect, but imagine flying Capt. Rickenbacker's WWI Spad biplane in the first Gulf War to get an idea of the timespan involved here.
The "Peace Dividend" seems to have been written on a bounced check.
FMCDH
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