Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- RTX Q1 2025 Earnings: GTF Talk Takes A Back Seat To Tariffs April 22, 2025
- Tariffs Tumult Takes Over GE Aerospace Q1 2025 Earnings Call April 22, 2025
- Boeing reports mixed results of latest employee survey, but middle management and officers remain key obstacles April 22, 2025
- Hopes for 1Q financial progress turns into bumpy ride for Boeing April 21, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 18. April 18, 2025
How many ways can the USAF screw up KC-X?
Defense News has this story about the USAF sending Boeing and EADS proprietary information about each company’s bids to the other by mistake. How else can the government screw this competition up? If you read the post carefully,… Read More
Another KC-X deadline passes
Today was supposed to be the day the KC-X contract was to get its go-ahead, but as has so often been the case, another deadline has come and gone. The USAF suggests it will be done this fall,… Read More
New study on KC-X, and other news
There is a new report on the KC-X tanker situation, in this 16-page PDF. A hat-tip to Addison Schonland and IAG. Airbus and Boeing aren’t rushing to re-bid on India’s tanker program after the country previously canceled a… Read More
EADS reveals its analysis of tanker fuel use; says KC-45 is more efficient than KC-767
EADS reveals its study–countering two Boeing-commissioned reports–about fuel usage of the KC-45 vs the KC-767; EADS says it delivers more bang for the buck than Boeing; Flight Global has a good story detailing some of Boeing’s KC-767’s technical… Read More
KC-767 cost advantage over KC-45
Boeing has released the results of a study it commissioned on the life-cycle cost advantage of the KC-767 vs. the KC-45, this time using a firm we’ve actually heard of and greatly respect: AeroStrategy. AeroStrategy analyzed 10 scenarios,… Read More
‘You can’t kick ass without tanker gas’
Here is an interesting British perspective on aerial refueling tankers, via the UK’s Defense Management Journal.
Tanker update
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the KC-X tanker competition, which is coming to the forefront again with the issuance of the Interim Report on Boeing subsidies by the WTO. Flight International has this story citing… Read More
Voice of Watergate Past: Tanker date may be “inoperative”
It never ends. Reuters has this story that the tanker award date may slip from the November 12 dated, but we shouldn’t be surprised, since we suggested as much quite a while ago. What caught our attention is… Read More
US Aerospace’s AN-112KC
When a small company called US Aerospace announced it teamed with Ukraine’s Antonov to offer an aerial refueling tanker called the AN-112KC, observers from all over the industry scratched their heads in puzzlement. First, few had heard of… Read More
O’Keefe fate unknown; assessing impact on tanker competition
The fate of Sean O’Keefe, CEO of EADS North America, who was among those on the de Havilland DHC-3 Otter than crashed and killed five of the nine people on board, remains unknown. Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens,… Read More