My God, I made someone laugh with my post. Finally.

@bradclark1
If the Fat Lady does sing, then it will trully be a sad day for the USA. Everyone knows that money and political connections (that come with money) control everything. I believe people will become even more disillussioned, at least those who notice this. To the common guy in the USA, it will be a day to celebrate. For the rest of the world, this will prove that ...

You know what. I've had enough of complaining for one day. Finish the sentence if you like. If you read my first post, you'll know what I wanted to say.

On the brighter note, its good to see Boing getting one more punch from Airbus.

I wonder...

http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/g...x?ItemID=19940

:lol: Somehow I don't think so.

Funny is that while the A 330s will be build in Tolouse, the whole refueling package and the associated research and development are all done in Dresden, in the former GDR's only aviation plant.
The A 330 MRTTs for Australia and the A 310 MRTTs for the Luftwaffe were all converted in Dresden
So basically the US air force is buying former east Block
:D


In the same halls they are restoring the only surviving example of the Baade 152, the only GDR jet aircraft ever to fly.

Somehow I can't agree with the statement that defense related stuff shouldn't be related to overseas work. In that case the UK would be screwed as we'd have to pull out of every procurement program we have.

On paper teh 330 seems teh better plane in terms of capacity and weight. It's not like Airbus ahven't been developing a tanker so it isn't new tech.

Why should Boeing get all the fun. Besides it will be assembled in the US providing a shed load of jobs.

Its like when the EH-101 won the competition for Marine 1 replacement.

It seems most European military projects are European multinational projects which on a monetary standpoint makes sense because of budgets. Our budget is larger than all Europe combined. We have the technology, industry and capital to design and build within our own borders and for military I believe it should be. That means we aren't reliant on anybody.
The only European country the U.S. is tied to the wrist at is the U.K. Every other country is politics and frankly the way things are that means they aren't %100 percent reliable and therefore national defence projects should be kept in-house. You can call me nationalistic but thats okay because I am.
As far as the EH-101 I think it's a disgrace. The POTUS riding around in a foreign aircraft. Thats like the queen riding around in a Peugeot. We will see when he/she actually does ride in it or not. I bet it will be front page news.

I have to agree with Bradclark1. Not only should it be built here to remove dependence on any foreign company (And France could be an enemy some day), Congress is going to chew up the Air Force and spit it out. Air Force can select any program it wants, but Congress can say thats fine and simply not give them any money.

I'd say this is still 80% in Boeing's court. The only reason I still give the Airbus a 20% victory is that Northrup is involved, but in what capacity that they are involved is still in question. Northrup probably needs the business bad too and maybe this had some part to do with it to keep this defense contractor flush with cash?

-S

It was obviously the Airforce itself who decided in favour of the Northrop/Grumman/EADS Plane. Considering the big advantage Boeing has as the "hometeam" the offer of the US/Euro Consortium must have been A LOT better.

I wonder how this fits into this "We support our troops" blabla if the protectionists demand the USAF to go 2nd class while they obviously prefer to drive Hondas, Toyotas and BMWs over Ford or GM.:rotfl:

Where have all those protestors have been when Northrop/Grumman/EADS was allowed to make a proposal??! Ah i guess noone believed they could win against the overwhelming Pro-Boeing lobby, what kind of competition is this?

I must say that i am deeply impressed by the objectivity and open-mindedness of the Airforce Officials who made this decision - simply based on operational requirements. The same was done in many european countries -many times- as they decided to buy American Planes like the F-4, F-16 and F-35. Personally i would have preferred Germany taking part in the F-35 program as it could replace both our old fighters and the ageing Tornado - unlike the Eurofighter even though its a formidable plane.

Anyway - a lot of middle class familes in Mobile, Alabama will be very happy about this decision. They will get some well-paid jobs in a promising joint venture, like the ones who already work for Mercedes, Thyssen-Krupp and BMW. Boeing can now close its 767 line and shift its workers and production capacity to the 787.

JUST LIKE TO MAKE A BIG POINT HERE

The queen rides around in a jaguar and who is jaguar owned buy? none other than an American company called FORD.

But she's not riding in a Ford though is she? Jag is still a British company.

Not really...if Jag is a subdivision of Ford, then it is an American company. It may have been a British company before its purchase by Ford, but that's no longer the case. Besides, I thought that the queen rides in a Rolls-Royce (which is now German, owned by BMW).

Yes she is, the jaguars have mondeo chasis and either mazda (which again is owned by ford) or ford engines, most of the interior is from the Mondeo so 90% of that car is ford and american.

The only thing that remains jaguar is the badge and a slight part of the body work that is it everything else is ford.

This is like arguing that she doesn't speak English, but rather American.....they both sound the same but the words are often spelled differently http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/621/thinkbigsw1.gif

There, I fixed it for you:yep:

I believe(I could be wrong) that Ford owns only twentyfive percent of Mazda.

Edit: Ford is currently in the process of selling Jaguar to Tata (India). I don't know if Land Rover (also owned by Ford) is part of the deal.