Bell Boeing eyeing deal
Amarillo plant celebrates 100th Osprey delivery
By Jim McBride
Bell Boeing expects to ink a multi-year procurement deal - valued at up to $11 billion - in about two weeks to produce 167 V-22 Ospreys, top company officials confirmed Wednesday. About 500 people were on hand Wednesday at Bell Helicopter's Military Aircraft Assembly Center in Amarillo to commemorate the 100th Osprey delivery. Bell Boeing V-22 Program Director Gene Cunningham praised the workers who build tilt-rotor aircraft and noted that 12 Amarillo-built MV-22s are now performing combat missions in Iraq. "It is an incredible job and an incredible journey that we have been on. This airplane is doing things that no other airplane has done," Cunningham told the crowd. "This month is also the beginning of a longer journey for us. We hope to sign a multi-year contract with the government to provide not another 100 but another 167 airplanes to the U.S. government." Lt. Gen. George Trautman III, deputy commandant of Marine Corps aviation, said 12 Ospreys are now in Iraq performing scouting missions, medical evacuations and hauling troops and equipment to and from the battlefield.
Link to full story
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/031308/bus_9839510.shtml
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