A handout photo issued by Airbus shows an Airbus A330 MRTT tanker refueling two F-18 fighters. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Posted on 06/30/2015 5:45:37 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Airbus Group SE beat out Boeing Co. in a $1.33 billion race to supply South Korea with four aerial refueling tankers, dashing the U.S. plane maker’s hopes of securing the first foreign order for a program beleaguered by budget overruns and delays.
A spokesman for South Korea’s main arms procurement agency said Tuesday it plans to buy four of Airbus’s refueling planes, called the A330 MRTT, for multirole tanker transport. The first delivery is due in 2019.
The European plane maker’s bid became more attractive with euro weakening since the bids were submitted, the spokesman for South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said. It is the first indication the strong dollar may become a burden for U.S. defense exporters.
Airbus leads Boeing in overseas sales in the refueling jet contest. Customers for the A330 MRTT jets include Australia, the U.K., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, which last year picked the aircraft over Boeing’s Pegasus.
France and a consortium of European militaries have said they would buy the plane and India also has picked the Airbus aircraft for its air force, though it hasn’t finalized a contract.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
A handout photo issued by Airbus shows an Airbus A330 MRTT tanker refueling two F-18 fighters. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
These are good because you can see how much fuel they are carrying through the windows.(grin)
Ah, yes; the Frenchies did so much to save South Korea 65 years ago...
And for that reason South Korea should buy an airplane that costs more and doesn't meet their needs as well?
Maybe it was the 50,000 American lives lost....
Unlike Americans, the French don’t get all excited about crony capitalism...they embrace it and for AirBus it works. Try finding a flight to Europe on a Boeing.
Then that one is near empty........................
What is that?...................
Airbus. Making a low pass at the Paris air show.
Computer thought pilots were trying to land. Computer overruled their attempts to pull up.
Pull up! Pull Up!.............................
The world’s largest chain saw, a.k.a, Air France Flight 296, which went down in 1988. They were supposed to perform a low-level pass at an airshow at a small field during an air show.
The Airbus A320 (which had just entered service) was supposed to pass by at an altitude of 100 feet; instead, they skimmed over the field at an altitude of 30 feet; crew realized they were too low and applied TOGA (Take Off/Go Around) power, but the flight control system on the Airbus limited their input to prevent a stall, and the aircraft crashed into the trees.
There were plenty of other factors that contributed to the crash; the airfield was so small it wasn’t in the aircraft’s airport database; the crew didn’t receive their flight plan until the morning of the flight; they failed to fully understand how limits on the Airbus fly-by-wire system would make the aircraft less responsive in certain emergencies.
Worth remembering sometimes that Airbus is multinational, not just French. Wings in most models and engines in many are British: and the British weren't exactly inactive in the Korean War (4500+ casualties).
That’s actually a matter for debate...Airbus’s design philosophy is still built around the flight computer/fly-by-wire system; there are limits on what the pilot can do.
Boeing is much more of a pilot’s aircraft, and you can push a Boeing much further than you can an Airbus. Sometimes that comes in handy during emergency situations, like China Airlines 006, where the pilot pulled a 747 out of a 30,000 foot plunge near San Francisco. If it had been an Airbus A340 or 380, the plane would have hit the water, due to limitations built into the flight control system. Of course, Airbus proponents would argue their system would have never allowed the jet to get into that precarious position in the first place.
Apples and oranges...not a pilot, but 35 years of military and business travel, I’d rather be on a Boeing, though the newer A330s have more room in coach.
The pilot should have an override switch..................
And Boeing wings are made in Japan.
You’d think the Koreans would remember who saved their asses and it was not anyone from Europe.
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