[Spook50]

Originally Posted by re_guderian

I say we report Airbus/EADS to the EU anti-trust commission... oh, wait...

Boeing took out at least one full page ad in the paper here outlining their complaints with the process. However, not sure what they wanted to do by that. The only thing worse than a closed-door, under-the-table contract award system would be one done by public opinion...

Personally, having grown up in Seattle in the days when Seattle's economy = Boeing's economy (i.e. pre Microsoft), I'm a big Boeing fan, and I dislike the anticompetitive nature of government involvement of Airbus (plus I hate their commercial jets I fly in), but I gotta admit, I know squat about tanker qualifications/capabilities/TCO/reliability, etc. etc.

Yeah a buddy of mine is an engineer at Boeing and sent me a PDF of that ad before it was released when we were talking about it. He pretty much enforced my opinions of the whole deal.

Speaking as someone who maintains (and regularly flys on) the KC-135, the KC-767 is a FAR better match & replacement for the 135 than the KC-45A will be. Capabilities, maintenance-friendly engineering (but who gives a shit about that if you're behind a desk, am I right?), proven longevity of Boeing's products, and the already proven reliability in the tanker/airlift role of the KC-767. Many countries are already using it, and it's showing itself to be a damn well built tanker.