And wasn't their presentation rather uninspiring, D-IFF!
According to their spiel, the 'new wine in ancient skin' tanker is 'Combat Ready, Lowest Total Cost, American Made'.
Combat Ready? It hasn't even been built yet, let alone flown.
Lowest Total Cost? Believe that when you see the bottom line!
American Made? It hasn't even been built yet.
They also claim that
'Boeing's flight control design gives the pilot unrestricted access to the full flight envelope that may be necessary in a threat environment' Bless...presumably that actually means
'Boeing's flight control design gives the pilot unrestricted opportunities to overstress and destroy the aircraft because we don't have the necessary technology to include flight envelope protection'
"The NewGen tanker will be proudly built and supported by the experienced and committed work force that built the KC-135
which means that they must surely be in their 80s or 90s
except that those were built by McDonnell-Douglas
and who are currently building the KC-767 international tanker."
Or rather who are trying to get the massive order of 4 Italian 767-20ER conversions, now 5 years late, to work properly without their wings fluttering.....
169west, from their presentation, the current hopes of the Italian Air Force for the KC-767 are:
- Delivery of 2 a/c by 2010 (?)
- Total of 4 assets by the end of 2011 (?)
- IOC 1st quarter 2011, FOC end 2011 (?)