"C Knowles" wrote in message
om...
That's a darn good question. The 767 is available now and has enormous
political support. But the 7E7 is the same size and has what you'd want in
an OTS tanker; range & efficiency. The 767 is more of an interim tanker
until KC-X comes along, which is why leasing is a good idea. If the 7E7
were
to come on line we could sell/give back the KC-767s. But getting in now
seems the smart thing to do, as with the KC-135/707. Most avionics would
be
the same, as with the KC-10.

Better yet - why not procure some of each? There have been statements
that
there is a risk in having all the tankers be of one design in case that
design is grounded for some reason.

Smoke. This is just to justify the 767 buy. This type of a/c is rarely
grounded and even then it is as a precautionary measure, i.e., the
military
could still fly them in a crisis. It does not justify the huge added
expense.

You know that whatever the Air Force buys will be flying for 40+ years -
why
not get the latest, most efficient, and lowest maintenance aircraft?

Exactly. There is talk of a purpose built tanker but that would be hard to
justify the $. However, by leasing a small number of 767s the AF can delay
the KC-X decision and wait for any new technology aircraft to take shape,
such as X wing, blended wing, etc.

But the currently approved plan is only for the lease of 20 aircraft, with
purchase of the remaining 80. Time is apparently of the essence in this
case, with the current schedule looking at delivery of the last 767 tankers
in the 2014 timeframe--it would be hard to imagine any 7E7 tanker variant
being available for delivery before maybe 2010 at the very earliest, and
likely later, given that it is scheduled for first flight in 07 (a year
after the first 767 mods are accepted under the current plan) and civil
certification in 08. One advantage to the current 767 program is that we can
take advantage of the boom/aircraft integration effort already underway on
behalf of the Italian and Japanese purchases of the 767 tanker
mods--depending on the 7E7 means you'd have to wait for the integration and
associated testwork to be repeated all over again, making 2010 an optimistic
availability date.

Brooks


Curt