Boeing’s KC-46 aerial refueling tanker suffered another setback to its development schedule, Reuters reported Thursday.
The 767-based tanker could not transfer fuel to a C-17 transport plane during a recent test, the U.S. Air Force told the news agency.
The tanker already has successfully transferred fuel in flight to several other combat aircraft.
The military does not know yet if the problem with the C-17 will delay the Pentagon telling Boeing to start low-rate production of the KC-46, an Air Force spokesman told Reuters.
That decision originally had been scheduled for September 2015. However, previous delays during development pushed it back to this month.
Boeing actually started low-rate production of the KC-46 at its Everett plant in 2015. Doing so means it could have to pay for any rework that needs to be done to airplanes assembled before the Pentagon approves starting production.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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