U.S. Airforce to fly European tankers

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

Good points. Kinda like everyone who puts down people who drive "foreign" cars that are really built in the US.

Or those who drive "US" cars that are made up of almost all foreign made parts.

Um, excuse me, I'm not the U.S. military! This cannot be compared to a family sedan or mini-van. I don't appreciate that our billions of tax dollars are being given to a foreign government to produce something that could have been done VERY well here.

[AKA_Monet]

Peppy--

You know our Senators and Representatives are partly to blame here... Apparently there is an appeal process...

I don't like how the Boeing folks are suffering for ignorance and negligence.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Peppy--

You know our Senators and Representatives are partly to blame here... Apparently there is an appeal process...

I don't like how the Boeing folks are suffering for ignorance and negligence.

They only have so much influence. They've met with the decisionmakers on this on several instances, but they're not the ones to make the call. Only folks at the Pentagon are responsible for that.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Are you in Seattle, AKA Monet?

I am in Redmond...

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

They only have so much influence. They've met with the decisionmakers on this on several instances, but they're not the ones to make the call. Only folks at the Pentagon are responsible for that.

Tell me this, I am listen to the news and it is our McCord and Bragg has lost all these Stryker Brigades troops... That ENTITLES somebody up here some say in contracts.

Now maybe NG and Airbus can build a better and cheaper plane. But given their track record (i.e. not having one) for this kind of plane, nothing can delete 50 years of building this plane like Boeing pioneered... So, are folks telling me Boeing is gonna want to give up trade secrets?

I know a few engineers... I think there is a gross mistake...

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

I am in Redmond...



Tell me this, I am listen to the news and it is our McCord and Bragg has lost all these Stryker Brigades troops... That ENTITLES somebody up here some say in contracts.

Now maybe NG and Airbus can build a better and cheaper plane. But given their track record (i.e. not having one) for this kind of plane, nothing can delete 50 years of building this plane like Boeing pioneered... So, are folks telling me Boeing is gonna want to give up trade secrets?

I know a few engineers... I think there is a gross mistake...

Funny you should mention trade secrets, because Airbus has a history of actually ripping off Boeing's planes. They take Boeing's plans and tweak them slightly to make their own product. Few people know this, but the double-decker plane that Airbus just launched was actually discussed and drawn up at Boeing decades ago...but Boeing rejected that idea in favor of the 787, which they believed was a better solution to airlines' needs. So far, that bet looks to have been the smart one.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Funny you should mention trade secrets, because Airbus has a history of actually ripping off Boeing's planes. They take Boeing's plans and tweak them slightly to make their own product. Few people know this, but the double-decker plane that Airbus just launched was actually discussed and drawn up at Boeing decades ago...but Boeing rejected that idea in favor of the 787, which they believed was a better solution to airlines' needs. So far, that bet looks to have been the smart one.

So how did NG/Airbus get the contract is EVERYBODY knows they bootleg chit off of Boeing? Be creative, make your own chit!

Folks wonder why some planes fail to work, especially military planes...

[PeppyGPhiB]

It's gettin' political! John McCain might get a question or two about this as the election approaches.
Words of warning from D.C.: Expect "firestorm of criticism"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...olitics01.html

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

So how did NG/Airbus get the contract is EVERYBODY knows they bootleg chit off of Boeing? Be creative, make your own chit!

Folks wonder why some planes fail to work, especially military planes...

Well, the essential difference here seems to be that Airbus just chose a bigger plane as its base. You'd think the Air Force would have concerns other than just size...how stereotypically American. A guy from the Pentagon is on record as saying that the Airbus option supposedly delivers better reliability, too, but I fail to see how they could possibly know that when this plane (with its systems) has never even been built before!

[RU OX Alum]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Peppy--

You know our Senators and Representatives are partly to blame here... Apparently there is an appeal process...

I don't like how the Boeing folks are suffering for ignorance and negligence.

i think people should suffer for their own negligence and if they are ignorant then maybe they learned something and can do a better job next time

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Um, excuse me, I'm not the U.S. military! This cannot be compared to a family sedan or mini-van. I don't appreciate that our billions of tax dollars are being given to a foreign government to produce something that could have been done VERY well here.

So, I guess the the US government won't get tax dollars from the US part of this consortium.

Here's a link to a story about the deal:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...orce-deal.aspx

A couple questions occur to me.

Might it be that Boeing really did have an inferior bid?

Or a much more expensive bid? Anybody seen a comparison?

If so, wouldn't Congress and the GAO be all over the Air Force for choosing Boeings bid?

Does Boeing not outsource parts, etc. outside the country?

Won't the loss of new jobs in Seattle be a gain for Mobile? They're both in the US, right? My wife's family has included numerous Boeing employees and engineers in both Seattle and Huntsville, AL, but this, unfortunately, is business, not Washington vs. Alabama.

Will the fabrication of this new plant in the South bring more aircraft building and sales into the overall US economy in the long run with more capacity to build and assemble airframes?

Finally, if the Airbus design is technically superior and more efficient shouldn't it win? Obviously, the Air Force thinks so.

As for the car analogy you take to task, the point simply is that buying something simply because it is allegedly a US product doesn't really hold water anymore in this day of globalsim. The computer you're reading this on may well have been assembled here, but the parts that made it probably weren't.