Northrop-EADS tanker takes first flight
Published 9:59 am Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The chief competitor to Boeing’s KC-767 tanker completed its maiden flight this morning.
The KC-30 tanker is the product of Northrop Grumman and EADS. The duo has pitted their aerial refueling tanker against the KC-767 in a bid for a $40 billion contract supplying the U.S. Air Force with tankers.
The initial aircraft, known as D-1, flew for nearly four hours, according to a Northrop press release. D-1 will be the first tanker delivered to the Air Force should Northrop-EADS win the contract.
However, Northrop officials told Flight International in an article out today that they will make some adjustments to the KC-30 for the Air Force.
The pair based the KC-30 off of Airbus’s A330 -200 commercial jet. (EADS is the parent company of European jet maker and Boeing rival Airbus.) Since the initial design, Airbus has developed a freighter version of the A330-200, which will become the basis of the KC-30s built for the Air Force, Northrop said.
Northrop-EADS already has won three international tanker competitions, securing contracts to supply Australia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom with KC-30 tankers.
Boeing will supply both Italy and Japan with its KC-767, based off the Everett-built commercial 767 jet. However, the Chicago-based aerospace giant company is significantly late in delivering the initial tankers to those countries.
Boeing has maintained that its problems delivering the KC-767 will not hurt its chances for winning the Air Force contract. The company’s vice president for the tanker program reiterated that point to Bloomberg yesterday.
The Air Force plans to announce the winner in December or January.
