Boeing is waiting on the Pentagon to issue the requirements for the forthcoming KC-X tanker competition, so the company still doesn’t know yet whether it will offer an aerial refueler based on its 767 or its larger 777 commercial aircraft. But what is already clear is that the company is committed to taking a lower risk approach this time around, Rick LeMaster, Boeing’s KC-X program manager, told reporters today at AFA’s Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition in Washington, D.C. This means there will be no so-called “Franken-tanker” like Boeing offered in the last KC-X go-around, when it proposed a variant of the of the 767 with new wings and other new major components added to the baseline 767 design. Lemaster said this is “not the strategy” that the company will pursue. Continue
If the Air Force is in line for a big budget bump from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, the head of Air Combat Command said he would make aircraft spare parts his top spending priority—but cautioned that more money to buy parts won’t equal a…
