There was more talk — but no action — this week on the U.S. Air Force’s refueling tanker bid.
The Air Force was expected to release the final specifications for the tanker bid in December but have pushed back that release to mid-January, perhaps next week.
Earlier this year, Northrop Grumman, the Boeing Co.’s major competitor on the multi-billion dollar deal, sent the Air Force a letter threatening to withdraw from the bidding process if the Air Force’s final proposal seemed slanted toward Boeing. One analyst close to Northrop told the Associated Press this week that company officials have decided against submitting a bid.
If Northrop should bid and win the contract, it would work with Airbus’s parent company, European Aeronautic Space and Defence Co. on the tanker. The Northrop-EADS tanker would be based off of Airbus’s A330 jet.
Interestingly enough, this week Airbus saw the launch of its A330-200 Freighter – a plane more closely in line with the Air Force’s tanker requirements. Airbus stretched out the launch of its A330-200 freighter over four days, which begs the question: how many launches does one plane deserve?
The company announced a commitment for 20 freighters from Intrepid Leasing on Monday and a firm order for 6 from India’s Flyington Freighters on Tuesday. During a press conference Wednesday, EADS gave Airbus the industrial go-ahead for the A330-200 freighter.
By Thursday, nobody was paying attention anymore when Airbus finally got around to saying that Guggenheim Aviation Partners signed up for the freighters first and will be A330-200F’s launch customer.
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