Free Republic

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a recent order for 100 new aircraft placed by an Indian airline will create thousands of American jobs, referring to SpiceJet’s decision to buy planes from Boeing. SpiceJet had announced an order worth $22 billion with the US aircraft maker in January. The order is expected to create 1.32 lakh high-skilled jobs in America. “I was pleased to learn about an Indian airlines’ recent order of 100 new American planes, one of the largest orders of its kind, which will support thousands and thousands of American jobs,” Mr. Trump said alongside Prime Minister...

Qatar has finally moved forward with a long-standing plan to buy advanced fighter jets from the United States. This comes amid a massive spat between the small country and Saudi Arabia that has spiraled into a huge political crisis throughout the Middle East and beyond. On June 14, 2017, Bloomberg News reported that the Qataris would sign a $12 billion deal to buy up to 36 F-15QA fighter jets from Boeing. The country’s Ministry of Defense later announced it had reached an agreement, which followed a meeting between Minister of State for Defense Affairs Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah...

The Export-Import Bank charter will expire in a few days, on June 30, unless Congress acts to reauthorize it. The Export-Import Bank was created more than 80 years ago by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help foreign customers buy goods from the United States. Some companies benefit from the Export-Import Bank and they are the first ones to defend its reauthorization. But let’s be clear: Companies benefit from Export-Import Bank loans at the expense of taxpayers and other businesses. Taxpayers—not the companies themselves—assume the risk of a foreign loan, made through a private bank (like Goldman Sachs), to purchase a...

American aerospace giant Boeing and France's Dassault Aviation are among the four entities that have responded to he Indian Navy’s 'Request for Interest (RFI)' to provide 57 multi-role carrier borne fighters, industry sources said. The other two are Sweden's SAAB and Rosoboronexport of Russia. While Boeing has pitched its F/A-18 Super Hornet, Dassault has briefed the navy on its Rafale. SAAB has offered the maritime variant of its Gripen single-engine fighter jet. Naval Chief Sunil Lanba confirmed the development. "We will examine the RFI and take it forward," he told this newspaper. The deal is valued over Rs 50,000 crore....

It was a treble celebration in Riyadh at the King Faisal Air Academy (KFAA) as the college celebrated its 50th anniversary, marked the graduation of its 91st course of students, and welcomed the first of the Boeing F-15SA tactical fighters developed for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). King Salman attended the celebrations with his son, Defence Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Omar Al-Bashir, president of Sudan. The day’s ceremonial included a parade and a flypast, which featured one of the first four F-15SAs delivered, while two more aircraft were displayed on the ground. The king...

A plan to sell $21.1 billion worth of Boeing (BA)-made F-15 fighter jets to Qatar appears to be moving forward, despite several countries cutting diplomatic ties with the Middle Eastern nation this week. A State Department official said the diplomatic battle and President Donald Trump’s criticism of Qatar, which is under fire for allegedly supporting terrorist groups, has not affected the pending deal to deliver 72 F-15QA multirole fighters, according to Fox News. In a statement, Boeing said it’s “closely following recent developments.” “We have been working closely with the U.S. and Qatari governments on this proposed sale. We continue...

F-15 production is secure through 2019, and planned updates will keep the U.S. Air Force flying the multi-role F-15E Strike Eagle version into the 2040s, Boeing reports. The manufacturer also has a case to make for extending the life of the F-15C/D air superiority version of the 1970s-vintage fighter, which faces a shorter time horizon. “The last time we delivered a Strike Eagle to the U.S. Air Force was in the mid-2000s,” Steve Parker, Boeing vice president for F-15 programs, told reporters visiting the company’s St. Louis-area manufacturing facility May 17. “Right now, over the last couple-year period, is the...

A current dispute between the Canadian government and the Montreal-based aircraft maker Bombardier on the one side, and Boeing on the other, appears to be proving one thing: Protectionism begets protectionism. The quarrel heated up a few weeks ago, when Boeing launched an anti-dumping petition against Bombardier, asking the U.S. Department of Commerce to find that the latter was guilty of dumping its C Series plane on the U.S. market at below market costs with the help of the Canadian and Quebec governments. Demonstrating an all-too-predictable tit-for-tat approach, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland responded immediately to the move, ordering a...

Boeing is set to deliver a refueling tanker that can gas up a jet in midair in complete darkness -- the first of its kind. The U.S. Air Force is buying 179 of the new KC-46 'Pegasus' tankers, which are set to begin delivery at the end of this year. The Air Force has had stealthy jets for decades, but even they have to turn on their lights when refueling in the sky. The KC-46's ability to gas up an aircraft in complete darkness is a first for any military.

ARLINGTON, Va., May 24, 2017 – Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are collaborating to design, build and test a technology demonstration vehicle for the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. Boeing will develop an autonomous, reusable spaceplane capable of carrying and deploying a small expendable upper stage to launch small (3,000 pound/1,361 kg) satellites into low Earth orbit. Boeing and DARPA will jointly invest in the development. Once the spaceplane – called Phantom Express – reaches the edge of space, it would deploy the second stage and return to Earth. It would then land on...

Boeing believes it has prospects and contracts for its F-15 Strike Eagle aircraft up until at least 2019 and likely beyond 2022. The company has deliveries ongoing for Saudi Arabia, which has ordered 84 aircraft, as well as an undisclosed customer and, according to a company official, is about to sign another contract with an unnamed operator, believed to be Qatar, for up to 72 aircraft. Over the last seven years the company has carried out major improvements to the original variant which has meant, according to officials, taking the life of the aircraft from 9,000 flight hours to 20,000...

Canada suggested on Thursday it could scrap plans to buy Boeing fighter jets if the United States backed Boeing’s claims that Canadian plane maker Bombardier dumped jetliners in the U.S. market. “Canada is reviewing current military procurement that relates to Boeing,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement released late on Thursday. Canada “strongly disagrees” with the U.S. Commerce Department decision to investigate Boeing’s claims that Bombardier sold planes below cost in the United States and benefited unfairly from Canadian government subsidies, the statement added. The remarks came after the U.S. Commerce Department launched an investigation into Boeing’s...

Airline mechanics assigned to perform critical maintenance on the fleet of Air Force One planes used to fly President Donald Trump and previous presidents were caught using contaminated tools on the craft, causing more than $4 million in damage that could have caused a fire to break out on the plane, according to a federal investigation. Three mechanics working for Boeing, which has a contract to perform critical maintenance on the Air Force One fleet, "failed to observe explicit warnings" while attempting to clean the plane at a Boeing-owned plant in San Antonio, Texas. Boeing, which has caused a firestorm...

Boeing Co (BA.N) handily defeated a union drive by workers at the company's aircraft factory in South Carolina on Wednesday, as almost three-quarters of workers at the plant who voted rejected union representation. The secret ballot vote, conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) at polling locations throughout the North Charleston plant, was the first for Boeing and a high-profile test for organized labor in the nation's most strongly anti-union state. The NLRB said 74 percent of the 2,828 workers who cast ballots voted against joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

The Royal Australian Air Force is on contract to acquire 12 P-8A Poseidons for delivery through March 2020. (Photo: Mike Yeo) The U.S. has cleared the Boeing P-8A Poseidon for sale to New Zealand, as that country moves toward the next phase of acquiring a new maritime patrol aircraft to replace its Lockheed Martin P-3 Orions. Several manufacturers are eyeing the requirement. The Defense Security and Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress on April 28 that the State Department has approved the possible foreign military sale of four Boeing 737-based P-8As and associated support to New Zealand for approximately $1.46 billion....

An artist’s representation of a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile. Boeing Image Boeing is no longer offering an upgraded variant of its RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile as part of a competition to field an over-the-horizon anti-ship missile for the frigate and the Littoral Combat Ship, a company official told USNI News on Tuesday. “We’ve really taken a hard look at what the requirements are that [Naval Sea System Command] has looked for in the request. We’ve kept up to speed on every [request for proposal] modification and with that the constant change in the top-level requirements every time they do a...

Boeing Co warned employees on Monday it planned another round of involuntary layoffs that would affect hundreds of engineers at its commercial airplanes unit, according to a source and a memo seen by Reuters. The latest job cuts followed a prior involuntary reduction of 245 workers set for May 19 as the company responded to increasing competition and slowing aircraft sales. The additional layoffs are due to start June 23, according to the memo from John Hamilton, vice president of engineering at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "We are moving forward with a second phase of involuntary layoffs for some select skills...

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — Boeing is working to help the Navy resolve the strike fighter shortfall through three programs for its F/A-18 Super Hornets and is offering a substantial increase in the fighter’s capability with a Block III upgrade, a company official said April 4. In a significant shift in tone, the officials who briefed reporters at the Navy League’s 2017 Sea-Air-Space Exposition talked about the Super Hornet providing “complementary capabilities” to the Lockheed Martin F-35s. Recently, Boeing officials have been describing the Super Hornets as a cheaper alternative to the fifth-generation Lightning II. The initial effort to close the...

Since its inception nearly 40 years ago, the F/A-18 fighter family has come to dominate Navy carrier decks — and supported a base of more than 200 military contractors in Southern California. With a stealthy replacement rolling off assembly lines, though, its days seemed to be numbered. Now, thanks to an unexpected lift from the Trump administration, the latest version of the fighter jet could catch a second wind. President Trump has requested $2.32 billion for 24 new F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft in a supplemental budget request for fiscal year 2017. That comes after months of Trump tweets and...

Aerospace giant Boeing is back in the news again, though not for the sort of thing they would generally like to see. The company announced this week through union representatives that roughly 1800 people would be losing their jobs. The layoffs are taking the form of “buyouts� which include a few generous incentives on their way out the door at the company’s facilities in Washington state. (UPI) More than 1,800 unionized employees of Boeing will leave the company through voluntary buyouts, two unions announced.Personnel cuts in Boeing’s commercial aircraft division, where the formerly Seattle-based company has about half of...