The Tanker Joke - round... 4, I think?

[shawn a]

Waiting for a decision on this is like being at a cheap comedy nightclub where the guy onstage has forgotten his own punchline!
It's embarassing!

[Webmaster]

Ow yeah, and the guy onstage isn't even some amateur, he's a pro and #1 in the entire world.

[shawn a]

Wow--you're merciless!! Just rub some more salt in this embarrasing wound! Maybe someone in the Pentagon will feel the burn!

[F-111 C/C]

Just read that Boeing got the contract, true?

[shawn a]

Surely, you jest!
I know, I know,--stop calling you Shirley!

[Webmaster]

That explains the silence in the past few weeks.

So yeah, Boeing, I'm not surprised.

[Webmaster]

So, let's pretend there won't be a follow-on round... I think there won't be, except maybe some political and legal stuff... how do you guys feel about your new tanker?

[shawn a]

I'll be able to answer that when I see one parked in the display area of an airshow.
So--When do you think it will be built? When will it first fly, and when will it be operational?
Maybe time for a new topic--"The KC-Y Joke"

[Webmaster]

First flight is scheduled for 2015... 18 aircraft by 2017 under initial contract.

KC-Y... bit early for a topic... wait 10 years?

[shawn a]

So, it's supposed to take 4+ years to modify an aircraft that's already in production?
How long was it from the first -8 flight until Boeing modified it to be the demonstrator for the KC-135?
Dash 8 first flight--July 15th 1954,  KC-135 first flight--August 31st, 1956..
(I'm sure you've heard of the -8s barrel roll during the hydroplane races, in August, 1955 -- I think the pilot came back over the race area and did another one! That kind of confident adventurism is evidently lost forever here.)
Hey, Boeing...Take an airframe from the production line and fit it out with the refueling gear and start testing!! Or, better yet, take one of your own 767s and use it!! (Don't tell me you don't have at least one (f)lying around).

[F-111 C/C]

You took the thoughts right out of my head! I can see 2015 if they were using the 787! There are plenty of 767s they could 'quick pack' to get the ball rolling (or the fuel flowing as it were) in half the time. We should be making those decisions huh Shawn?

[Webmaster]

Yeah, well, they did all those changes based on 787 tech remember, cockpit etc. And still need new boom.

KC-135... didn't it just get the boom off the KC-97? Boeing boom was ready. Also different times, LeMay/Cold War and Boeing must have been pretty rich at that time...

an airframe from the production line and fit it out with the refueling gear and start testing

Uhm, like I said those aren't the same. If you think that doesn't matter, then you could also say KC-46 = KC-767, so in that sense first flight already occured.

So, it's supposed to take 4+ years to modify an aircraft that's already in production?

I guess, that's why they got so upset when EADS started advertising that their tanker was flying. 

Or they are playing it safe, having learned that lesson with the 767 delays for Italy/Japan?