Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
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- Digital twin is a key to JetZero’s hopes for Blended Wing Body entry June 2, 2025
L-3 appears out as EADS partner
Update, April 16, 0900 PDT: Reuters moved this story this morning about EADS options dwindling away.
DOD Buzz has this analysis on why EADS needs a partner.
Original Post:
Reuters just moved this report that L-3 is probably out as a potential partner for EADS in a possible KC-X tanker bid.
This sends EADS scrambling for alternatives.
Reuters also reports that political pressure may have had a hand in Northrop Grumman’s decision to withdraw and that political issues may be involved in L-3’s apparent decision to withdraw from consideration.
If true, if political interference is at work, “incendiary” won’t even begin to cover the fall-out that could come from this.
US favors negotiating trade dispute
Crain’s Chicago Business reported yesterday (April 6) that US Trade Rep. Ron Kirk wants to negotiate an end to the EU-US trade dispute over Airbus and Boeing subsidies.
We only just spotted this–there hadn’t been any pick-up by the media that we saw.
The link to the story is here.
But Boeing still says launch aid has to end, a position Airbus continues to resist.
Boeing seeks cybersecurity recruits
Boeing’s Defense unit created a cybersecurity division a few years ago as the company recognized the growing threat to national security and the need to diversify from traditional weaponry with changing defense needs.
Here is a story today about Boeing’s effort to find new recruits for cybersecurity from Bloomberg.
777 production spotlighted
The latest issue of Boeing Frontiers, the company magazine, spotlights the Lean Production line for the 777. This follows the years-long conversion for the 737 line.
We have always felt these Lean Production methods are one of the secrets to Boeing’s success since implementation following the production debacle in 1997. Boeing is going to adopt a Lean Production Line for the 767, which will enable the company to offer the Pentagon better pricing for the KC-X tanker bid. We wrote about this in a previous post.
DOD is within its rights to extend tanker deadline
It was predictable that Boeing supporters would become apoplectic when the Defense Department said it will extend the May 10 deadline 60 days to July 9 should EADS decide to submit a bid for the KC-X program, but legally DOD is within its rights.
We talked with two people yesterday who have no skin in this game and both told us that at this stage, ie, before bids have been submitted, DOD has the full discretion to set the deadlines any time it wants. Or DOD has the discretion to cancel the competition altogether, to be extreme about it.
Key conferences coming up
There are a couple of key conferences coming up that we want to particularly bring to the attention of our readers.
In Washington State, there is the Innovation Summit next Friday, April 9.
Aside from the fact we’re appearing on the aerospace panel (our third conference appearance this year already), this summit goes well beyond commercial aerospace and also deals with defense and non-defense issues, including clean technology.
Which leads us to the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference April 27-29 in the “other Washington,” WA DC. With aviation moving toward biofuels at an increasingly rapid pace is an important event.
Then there is the Making a Difference: Aerospace Leadership for Energy and Environmental Challenges May 11-12, also in Washington, DC. This is a particularly attractive program. This one is sponsored by AIAA, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Coupled with Aviation Week’s Eco-Aviation conference (dates this year still to be announced), these provide the most comprehensive opportunities in the US for aviation environmental conferences.
Aviation Week’s 2009 conference.
Airfinance Journal has its 30th Annual conference April 26-27 in New York City. This is a premier aviation conference that focuses on commercial aviation finance.
DOD to EADS: You’ve got 60 days
Update, April 1, 0800PDT: Boeing just issued this statement in response to the DOD announcement yesterday:
ST. LOUIS, April 1, 2010 – The U.S. Department of Defense on March 31 said it will extend the deadline to receive proposals in the U.S. Air Force KC-X Tanker competition from May 10 to July 9 if European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) makes a formal request for an extension. The Boeing Company today responded with the following statement:
“We are deeply disappointed with EADS-Airbus efforts to further delay this vital warfighting program and tilt the U.S. procurement process in its favor. EADS-Airbus has been fully engaged in the competition for four years and was always expected to provide the vast majority of its team’s work content.
“We welcome the denial of EADS’s repeated requests to alter U.S. warfighting requirements, and we support the Air Force’s stated intent to provide a level playing field for qualified competitors. We do not see a legitimate reason for EADS’s bid deadline extension request, and we believe an extension that favors any individual competitor does not further the goal of ensuring fair competition.
“Boeing remains fully prepared to submit a competitive proposal by the May 10 deadline originally set by the Air Force. However, this latest development, along with the World Trade Organization’s recent final ruling that Airbus has been heavily and illegally subsidized for decades, requires Boeing to review all of our options for going forward while we wait for a final determination on a deadline extension.”
Original Post:
DOD just announced that it will extend the deadline from May 10 for 60 days to July 9 in order to give EADS the opportunity to submit a bid for the KC-X contract. This is contingent upon EADS notifying the Pentagon of its intent to bid.
EADS hoped for 90 days.
The Pentagon will compress its evaluation schedule to stay on its delivery date timeline for an early-fall contract award. No changes will be made in the RFP. The Pentagon also rejected questions whether political interference was involved.
Financing airplanes in 2010
Geneva, Switzerland: During the Aircraft Finance and Commercial Aviation Conference, we filed a couple of stories in aircraft finance with Commercial Aviation Online. Since CAO is a paid subscription service, our arrangement with CAO is that it gets exclusive use for a few days before we can post the stories here.
The stories are below the jump. In them, we report what panelists had to say about the “funding gaps” in 2009 and 2010 and about aircraft values.