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

54 failures on QF A380

The Associated Press, via this story in The Seattle Times, details the in-flight emergency of the Qantas A380 after the No. 2 engine suffered an uncontained failure. The account is very dramatic, particularly when the as-yet untold story… Read More

737RE? Forgettaboutit

In what is, perhaps, the clearest signal Boeing isn’t going to re-engine the 737, and that it will take on the Airbus A320NEO head-on with an upgraded model, take a look at the last line of the AerCap… Read More

Boeing repositions two 787s, probe continues

Update, Nov. 17, 4:30PM PST: This article from Europe talks about efforts by Safran group to acquire Zodiac, which is a supplier on the Boeing 787. The article refers to possible interest (or lack of it, actually) by… Read More

Tanker shortage cancels Red Flag exercise

Update, Nov. 17: EADS now is predicting the tanker contract award will slip to next year. This is entirely consistent with what we have been hearing (first quarter) and what we understand Boeing believes as well. Original Post:… Read More

Updates on Airbus, Boeing events

Aviation Week has this long and detailed story about the Airbus A380/Qantas engine failure. Qantas A380s remain grounded indefinitely. KING 5 (NBC, Seattle) has this account of the Boeing 787 fire. KIRO TV (CBS, Seattle) has this item… Read More

Airbus has its challenges, too

While headlines have understandably been focused on Boeing this week, Airbus has its problems, too. The Qantas A380 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine uncontained failure continues to generate news stories. The QF 32 flight details still are emerging, and… 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

Assessing 787 in-flight fire, Part 2

Dominic Gates of The Seattle Times has this interview with 787 program head Scott Fancher about the in-flight fire incident Tuesday of 787 ZA002. Fancher’s interview is clearly an effort to see the bright side of an event… Read More

Assessing 787 in-flight fire

There are plenty of news stories accessible through Google, so we won’t recap the incident here. Here’s what we can add to the story at this time (06:30 AM PST, Nov. 10); we’ll update as needed.