Posted on 12/14/2009 11:26:44 AM PST by Paul Ross
What threat. They are building the plans in America and unlike Boeing the Airbus/Northrup team has never rejected a city for a contract and then proceeded to attack said city and its workforce when they found out that their rivals had chosen said city and had put in a better bid for the same contract.
In a fair tanker competition EADS will win and that tanker will be built here. Boeing had a chance to take advantage of our hard-working, non-unionized workforce and they passed for us and then proceeded to attack us claiming that we weren’t “good enough” to build the tanker. As far as I’m concerned they can rot in hell.
No bias in that sentence. Nope, no siree.
If it’s for the United States Air Force, it should be built in the United States. There’s nothing this country can’t build and do it better than anyone else.
The Northrop/EADS plane would be built in Alabama and have more US content than the Boeing plane.
If Airbus/Northrup/EADS gets that contract those planes will be assembled at a plant in Mobile, which is a part of America the last time I checked.
Hmmm, smells like a union reply there. Nope, Boeing just doesn’t want unions doing to it what they did to GM and Chrysler.
Besides, as a pilot (albeit a fighter-type), I like to be in control of my plane (as Boeing does it) rather than being a voting member (as Airbus does it).
Besides, you wouldn’t find me flying a plane which cannot hack it in bad weather. You might want to have a seance and check with those room temp pilots of that Airbus over the Atlantic and see what they think of that solid French software engineering.
Instead of whining about how Boeing treated your city think about which plane will do the job and keep our pilots safe at the same time. From the article it sounds like the Airbus could be a dangerous solution. I agree that the Boeing suits are dickheads but let’s put that aside and think of the safety of our troops.
Really? You say that and yet they keep their facilities in Chicago and Washington state.
And the Northrup/EADS tanker is the better tanker. That’s why they won the first tanker competition. The plane is only not being built right now because Boeing whined and padded the pockets off enough Congress people that they listened. I don’t doubt that Boeing will get the contract. The President is from Chicago and McCain’s daughter-in-law lives in this area. It would still be nice if there would be a fair competition again like the one that Northrup won last time.
How do you square requirements over your apparent dislike of Boeing?
Doesn't the mission count?
The bid was for a replacement for the KC-135, not the KC-10. If the replacement tanker was to replace the KC-10, then the EADS bid would make sense. But the bid was for a mid-size tanker and therefore their bid did not.
Threshold vs Objective? How did the EADS bid rank when evaluated in accordance with those criteria?
Were they compliant? Non-compliant?
Basically, I would like to see a line-by-line analysis of the GAO report and any fact-based arguments refuting the GAO report.
Oh, how much large aircraft manufacturing experience does your area have? Would like to know if the work-force would have to be trained from building. . .what. . .to a level that can efficiently and safely build large aircraft.
Not familiar with the Boeing bid for the location. Please explain or send to link that can cover that subject. Unbiased, of course.
Thanks.
Actually, it would be built in France, shipped to the US for assembly.
Y’know, the USAF decided once what aircraft best met their requirements. Boeing went to their bought-and-paid-for politicians and had the competition overturned. This, after John McCain had their sweetheart lease deal overturned.
The USAF is going to get the tanker that the politicians want them to buy, their requirements be damned.
The objections to the A-330 seem to me to be substantial in nature.
I would like to see Boeing get the contract because it looks like thier aircraft meets the needs of the medium sized tanker RFP better than the A-330 (which may be a better plane, but it is simply too large).
The Draft RFP specifies certain cargo offload capabilities, which exceed what the KC-135 can do, are slightly below what the KC-767 can do, and well below what the KC-330 can do.
The Draft RFP specifies meeting those minimums, then concentrates on lowest cost. At that point, with no regard for the extra (or excess, depending on your point of view,) capacities in fuel/cargo/troops, then why should NG-EADS even bother with a multi-million dollar bid process it cannot win?
And don't forget, until the bids were unsealed during the last go-around, this was the $40 billion KC-X program. With two bidders, it became a $35 billion KC-X program.
Now, given Zero's recent spending habits, I know that $5 billion isn't a whole lot, but I'd love to see it turned into another 35 or so F-22 Raptors.
I was about to scold you by telling you that we should be buying an American Built airplane.
I then realised that Boeing Airplanes have 90% of their parts from all over the world. It would not be an American airplane after all.
I guess you have a point.
False. They are built in Europe. The inital planes will then have Modifications done in the U.S.
Promises to later on, merely ship the components to Alabama and reassemble the plane are fairly clearly never going to happen. They will, after getting the contract landed, simply change their plans. It would be vastly cheaper to them to retain their European assembly. They have every financial incentive to weasel out of their proposed arrangement with your Alabama folks. Face it...you are being used. And against the U.S.
Ones that can actually do the proper emergency pull-away that is specified in Air Force regulations?
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