I am bothered, though, by the behavior of congress in this. It takes little more than a contract and a calculator to figure out what the planes will actually cost. X payments of Y dollars. XY = how much money the planes will cost. Divide that by the number of planes and you know what you are about to pay for each one. If this is more than the planes cost, it is easy to see how much more, and if the financing is worthwhile. Pilots seem to like the Airbus plane, and the cost is good, but this whole thing stinks.
Was it really neccessary to prosecute people for offering a selling price, even if it was high? Boeing is a business, not a charity. If the offer was not good, congress could have easily said so.
The prosecutions were not about high prices, they were about an Air Force procurement official and a Boeing official who knowingly broke laws designed to protect the integrity of the acquisition process. And they both went to jail for their acts.
If that was the only issue no one would have gone to jail. It was much worse than that.
They didn’t go to prison for submitting a high price, but for bribery and corruption.