Contenders Line Up for JCA: There’s been a flurry of activity on the Joint Cargo Aircraft program, with three separate teams offering their respective platforms for the competition. Lockheed Martin formally said it would offer a short-fuselage variant of its combat-tested C-130J Hercules. The team of Raytheon and EADS CASA North America is sticking with two intratheater airlifters, the C-295 and CN-235—to be constructed in Mobile, Ala. And, the Boeing –L3 Communications-Alenia North America team does plan to offer the C-27J Spartan. Now, all the program needs is Army money for 2007.
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.