Brick,
Whilst it is of course a disappointment to Mr Wroblewski and his union colleagues to learn that Boeing lost, there is no schadenfreude or vindictive campaign exhibited on PPRuNe to merit your comment.
The fact is that Mr Wroblewski is seemingly ignorant of the fact that Airbus has built tankers for the Canada and Germany and is currently building tankers for Australia. Hence the comment regarding making him aware of this.
Work I did some while ago for the multi-national 'Future AAR' group compared the A330, A310 and B767 on similar missions, using information supplied by national reps in response to a set scenario, including aerodrome definitions (10000ft balanced field, sea level, zero wind, ISA) for departure, arrival and alternate. Warning bells began to ring when the US rep asked for a 12000ft runway. We refused. Hence, when the results came in, we found that, under the specified conditions, the B767 was only marginally better (in fuel offload and time-on-task terms) than a 4 x ACT A310. Something like 16 tonnes of the KC-767's 92 tonne fuel load had to be left on the ground because it was limited by field length even under fairly benign requirements! A fact I'd always suspected ever since Boeing had let it slip to me years earlier that "Runway length is something which we think Airbus beats us on".
A (theoretical) 5 x ACT A310 beat the 767 by a couple of tonnes of fuel load, but the outright winner by far was the A330 which could still take-off with 111 tonnes of fuel.
This was an international forum, with impartial views.
It must be gutting for Boeing; however, their own brass shot himself in the foot by earlier ruling out the 7-late-7 as a tanker because it "Didn't have the right configuration" - whatever that was supposed to mean.
Oh, and just for Mr Wroblewski:
EADS Completes Successfully 1st Flight Test phase A330 MRTT Aircraft
News Category: [Defence-Air] (Madrid, February 14, 2008) -- The first A330 MRTT prototype MSN747 has landed today at EADS MTAD facilities in Getafe, Madrid at 12:15h local time after completing Phase 1 of the flight testing that has been primarily devoted to civil certification. EADS MTAD has officially announced the conclusion of a key Australian A330 MRTT programme milestone.
Flight Test Phase 1 has been conducted in just 3 months logging up a total of 63 flights and 202 flight hours.
During this phase, the A330 MRTT has proven to be extremely reliable fulfilling the flight test programme in accordance to the flight test schedule. The A330 MRTT has behaved as expected, showing that the modifications introduced to the MRTT configuration (including refuelling pods and boom) had no significant effect on the aircraft's performance. The flight test programme has met all defined test objectives. The flight test campaign was oriented to analyze the behaviour of the aircraft with regard to the following disciplines: anemometry & clinometry, handling qualities, buffet, flutter, loads, performance, flight controls (new tanker and receiver adapted control laws), new autopilot mode (bank angle) and the antenna re-location.
The results of loads, performance and handling qualities measured during flight test have shown full consistency with the data calculated by design. Also, it has been verified that the aircraft is Buffet-free and Flutter-free in the whole flight envelope until maximum design speed (MD/VD) after the military modification.
During this flight test phase, the full flight envelope has been validated and no limitations or restrictions have been found.
In addition to the above disciplines involved in the civil certification, the following military development tests have also been performed: Hose deployment and stability, proximity flights in receiver mode (A310 Boom demo acting as tanker) and proximity flights in tanker mode (F18 acting as receiver).
The flight control laws that have been successfully tested and will provide the aircraft superior handling qualities characteristics in the new roles of the aircraft as tanker and receiver. To enhance the capabilities of the aircraft an electronic tail bumper has also been incorporated to minimize the possibility of a tail-strike at take-off.
The Flight Test Phase 1 has been conducted at Getafe and Toulouse depending on the requirements of the flight test program, involving EADS MTAD and Airbus Flight Test organizations. In addition, the RAAF crew has also participated in some of the flight test activities.Additionally, the Phase 1 Flight Test Programme has also included formal certification flights with the participation of the civil European Authority (EASA).
The reliability of the modified A330 MRTT and its state-of-the-art flight test instrumentation has been outstanding: Not a single flight has been delayed or cancelled due to a technical failure. This is a good example of the excellent capabilities this aircraft will provide to the RAAF
Last edited by BEagle; 2nd Mar 2008 at 19:09.