Free Republic

“(Hawker Beechcraft is moving jobs to Mexico as fast as they can — and quality isn’t the issue)”

^^^And what’s this line about in your post? If you’ve got something to say then say it.

“Gen. Deptula is the CEO of MAV6 LLC and serves as a member of the advisory board of the Sierra Nevada Corporation.”

So what this says is that Deptula is actually NOT an impartial expert and DOES actually stand to gain financially from the Tucano being awarded this contract.

So this article should matter to anyone....why????

“So, you missed his 2008 debate performances?”

Sorry, no I didn’t see that. I guess I was too busy packing moving boxes because I was laid off from my defense industry job after SecDef Gates made some bonehead decisions.

“You didn’t listen to him blame America and Americans for 9/11/01?”

I thought several different independently appointed committees came to that conclusion as well. We weren’t the targets of those wacko’s because we’re free men and they were jealous. They attacked us as a form of revenge for what they saw were injustices committed against their people by US policies.

Not that I’m sticking up for them. I think it should be open season on them. And I think the initial call to invade Afgahnistan was the correct one.

“You haven’t heard R-U-N Paul state during the 2012 campaign that he believes Iran should be allowed to complete their nuclear weapons program?”

Can you say for certain that their intent is to produce nuclear weapons?

And do we not sound like hypocrites for telling them they can’t? We have enough nukes to blow the whole world to kingdom come 3 times over. But we’re going to tell a sovereign nation they can’t build their own nukes to do the same thing? And what about Pakistan and India going nuclear? Not concerned with that? If that isn’t a nuclear war waiting to happen then what is?

“These are just the most glaring problems with R-U-N Paul. He also is a liar and hypocrite when it comes to pork.”

Please state examples of Paul being on the take and I’ll shut up about that.

Your name, SoldierDad, indicates that you are either the father of a soldier or a soldier yourself. Either way I commend the service. Thank YOU!

I’ve got a CO2 pistol at home that looks like a 9mm Beretta from 20 ft away. If it is the same gun the kid had there was probably little likelyhood the cops knew it was a BB gun.

As to the question of whether or not it was a legitimate threat even if they knew it was an air gun? Well....mine can easily go through the end of an aluminum can (the heavier gauge part). Could that kill you? I suppose it’s possible if you were shot with it in a few key locations on the body. Even if you weren’t hit in one of those key areas it would hurt like hell. Would most likely go through a layer of clothes and break the skin.

I guess the key question the lawyers are going to ask here is if the cops knew it was a BB gun or not...and if they did know, is this a righteous shooting?

I suppose if I knew the kid was holding a BB gun and refused to drop it I would probably just shoot him in the leg or fire a warning shot a couple of feet over his head and watch him wet himself.

Wow. I always chuckled that she was a commie for going to North Vietnam for a visit during the war. But after reading that it’s pretty obvious that she really IS a commie.

“Why in Hell would anyone take anything that the libertarian loon R-U-N Paul says as worthy of any attention?”

Just out of curiosity....what exactly has Ron Paul said/done that makes him a loon? I’ve done some reading on him and his stance on some issues. Seems to be a straight shooter, Calls it as he see’s it kinda guy. He doesn’t seem like the type who’s in anyone’s pocket, that’s for sure.

Dude...it’s not brochureware.

AT-3 is the third off the line and it’s production representative.

HBC could start building today with a hot assembly line.

How long do you figure it’s going to take the Brazillians and Sierra Nevada to get their act together and start building planes?

Not completely true.

Hawker Beechcraft is 49% owned by Oynx (who also own Spirit Aerosystems)

49% owned by Goldman Sachs

and 2% owned by executives.

So that would mean a slight majority is US owned.

But hey...the other 49% is Canadian....who are pretty much our Northern proxy anyway....

What you don’t see there is that this will be an assembly plant. The largest portion of it will be made in Brazil and shipped in for final assembly. That is a PR snow job if there ever was one.

Ask yourself how much sense it makes for Embraer to make duplicate tooling and ship it in to Jacksonville for people to make an airplane they’ve never delt with before from scratch. These sheet metal airplanes take an exceptional amount of tribal knowledge to master. This tribal knowledge is not easily transfered.

Ask the folks in Mexico trying to build KingAir and Bonanza parts how much fun they’re having trying to duplicate how they did it in Wichita.

In short....if they have to transplant the Tucano factory it ain’t ‘off-the-shelf’ no more.

It’s likely true that some 70 US suppliers could be involved. Ask yourself how many of those suppliers already supplied parts for the Tucano being built in Brazil.

Compare the numbers of US suppliers of Tucano parts to the number of US suppliers of AT-6 parts.

“Did Air Tractor ever have a shot at this?”

Apparently they had about the same shot at this as the AT-6. (sarcasm)

The AT-6 is ready to go right now. AT-1 and AT-2 were the test aircraft and the third off the line is representative of production. So by the time this contract is awarded, yes, it is an ‘off-the-shelf’ peice of equipment.

If the article were true why would the USAF have let HBC continue on with the program up until weeks before the contract award.

If their aircraft did not meet the basic requirements ‘as-is’ like the article says above someone at the pentagon should have said something.

Otherwise this was all a waste of not only their internal funds but also taxpayer dollars!

The simple truth is that HBC has coordinated with the USAF for years! (There has been involvement with the Iraqi Air Force since 2008!) Why would the USAF have strung them along up till now only to see them get the boot? It doesn’t make any sense.

Some of you seem hung up on how good the Tucano is....but have you seen the advanced systems going into the AT-6.

The Tucano may be proven in combat but does that necessarily mean it’s better? Would you also say the F-22 is a terrible airplane because it hasn’t seen real combat yet?