Originally Posted by
LowObservable
Ken - Your guys won. And you can say what you want about the various capabilities of the KC-46, but presumably both NG-EADS and EADS offered a compliant solution (with or without an upper deck cargo floor - as far as I can tell, the A330 as offered had a cargo door for casevac, but met the pallet requirement in the underfloor) including provision for the cloaking device, defensive laser, atomic trebuchet or whatevs.
Had it not been a compliant solution, it would have been rejected as such before the bids were in, and the AF would have found itself in a one-bid situation again, which didn't turn out too well the first time around. So as a US taxpayer, EADS did you a hell of a good turn by returning to the fight after the spec was "clarified" the first time around.
Indeed - he also casually forgets that he is posting in an air-to-air refuelling thread, throws up a wacky 'what airline' bait-and-switch question before slipping back to air force requirements where such configurations are rather useful.
Originally Posted by
KenV
Another interesting point is why would an airline operating an A330-300 airliner fill the tanks completely full of gas and then haul 10 tons of cargo while leaving the passenger compartment empty? Honestly, what airline has such an operating requirement? In other words, having a capability and having a useful capability are clearly two different things. And USAF's tanking requirements were based on actual useful needs. Both the KC-46 and A330MRTT meet or exceed those requirements. 'nuff said.
As you say, the main counterpoint to his arguments are usually his own. Meanwhile the A330T / MRTT / V'Ger tanker operators can take an aircraft that was flying full pax fit the day before, with no role change, fill it to full, add a few maintainers and assorted FJ spares before departing on a trail as rather
useful capability. Once the chicks are left at their destination the aircraft is ready for tasking for pax, freight or a mix of both with no additional logistics or role equipment changes.