Boeing [BA] could throw its KC-46A tanker program into flux if it doesn’t perform a critical flight test by the end of the year, according to a key Defense Department official.
U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) chief Air Force Gen. Paul Selva told reporters Thursday Boeing needs to fly a 767-2C airplane by the end of the year to achieve Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. Selva called this a “key parameter” for the company to get the 767-2C model provisioned as an aerial refueling tanker. Selva said the 767-2C configuration doesn’t feature the aerial refueling boom, so if the 767-2C earns FAA certification, it will have to go back through the assembly line to have the boom attached.
The tankers currently coming down the assembly line, Selva said, are already configured as KC-46s. The 767-2C is a commercial freighter based on the 767-200ER, which carries 3,180 cubic feet of cargo and has a maximum fuel capacity of 23,980 gallons.
“(Boeing has) told us they’re going to get it done by the end of the year,” Selva said during a Defense Writers Group (DWG) breakfast in Washington. “I look at my watch and say ‘tick, tock.’”
Achieving FAA certification is important if Boeing wants to achieve its plan of delivering 18 tankers to the Air Force by 2017. Boeing earlier this year took a steep charge relating to KC-46A engineering issues. Company CEO Jim McNerney said in July while these wiring issues are “well understood,” Boeing is facing challenges resolving engineering and systems installation issues on test aircraft (Defense Daily, July 23
).
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said Wednesday at the Credit Suisse Global Industrials Conference in New York that those earlier engineering issues were wiring issues on the first airplane. Those have been resolved, he said. Muilenburg said Boeing completed “factory functional test,” which he characterized as the company’s “ultimate test” of the fully integrated system. That airplane has rolled out of the factory and gone through fuel dock, which Muilenburg said is a preparatory step to get ready for flight testing.
“We’re doing final prep for first flight on tanker…got some of those technical issues behind us,” Muilenburg said. He added the Air Force wants, at a minimum, 179 tankers. Muilenburg’s remarks came courtesy of a transcript from the Seeking Alpha website.
Selva called Boeing’s goal of tankers by 2017 “aggressive” and warned that the program has consumed “the slack” that existed, leaving little margin for error.
“I’m still cautiously optimistic we’ll get the A&T (airlift and tanker) airplanes by 2017,” Selva said.
Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling Thursday, declined to specify when Boeing would fly for FAA certification, but said the company is progressing with functional testing of the first test aircraft, which will fly when Boeing and the Air Force determine it is ready. Drelling also said the company is still on the path to start flight testing fully provisioned tanker aircraft in the first part of 2015.
Boeing remains on plan to deliver the initial 18 combat-ready tankers by 2017, Drelling said. Of the four test aircraft, two will fly as 767-2Cs and two as KC-46s. Those 767-2Cs, Drelling said, will eventually become KC-46s.