EADS’ tanker progresses; Murray touts Boeing workers

Published 10:35 am Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The U.S. Air Force hasn’t kicked off its latest competition between the Boeing Co. and duo Northrop Grumman and EADS for a $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract. But the PR battle is gearing up already.

EADS announced today that it had made progress on its A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport. That’s the aircraft on which EADS and Northrop based their KC-30 tanker offering for the U.S. Air Force. EADS said it completed flutter vibration testing, which validated the in-flight handling qualities of the aircraft’s aerial refueling boom system. The parent company of Boeing’s commercial rival Airbus conducted the tests on an A330 MRTT that it plans to deliver to Australia.

EADS also recently told the Press Register that it still plans to build Airbus A330 Freighters in Mobile, Ala., if it and Northrop win the Air Force tanker contest (or share it with Boeing). EADS and Northrop also would assemble the KC-30 tanker there.

(On a side note, EADS reported its first quarter earnings today.)

Meanwhile, Boeing supporter U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., spoke today to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at a conference in Washington DC.

Last week, Murray added an amendment into a Senate bill that requires the Pentagon to inform Congress about the effects that canceling an acquisitions program would have on the U.S. industrial base.

Murray noted that several Boeing workers from Washington state were in the audience and in DC to meet with lawmakers. If Boeing wins the Air Force contest, it would build its KC-767 here in Everett.

From Murray’s speech:

“While you’re out meeting with your members of Congress – I want you to remind them that it took us a long time to build our industrial base. That your union has machinists who have passed experience and know-how down the ranks for half a century. And that you have a reputation for delivering for our military. But that once our plants shut down, we can’t get those skills back overnight.

“And that as we face two wars and a recession, it is critical that they are making decisions that keep our aerospace industry strong. Decisions that take our domestic base into consideration. And that begins by making clear to them that the next tanker completion must be fair and transparent.”