USAF Don’t like their new tankers.
USAF Don’t like their new tankers.
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Trevatanus

Original Poster:

11,349 posts

174 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2020
quotequote all
In more Boeing bad news...
USAF are saying they would only send their new tanker into battle if they had no choice. Maybe they should have bought the MRTT after all and ignored Boeing chucking their toys out of the pram.

https://www.airforcemag.com/goldfein-usaf-wont-use...

aeropilot

39,788 posts

251 months

Wednesday 4th March 2020
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This issue has been a problem for some 5 or 6 years now...........and is still not resolved.

This is what happens when geeks want to replace a task that has bee done perfectly well by a human being for decades........

Technology for technology sake. Pointless waste of time and money.

The previous generation remote systems work perfectly fine in the existing tankers..........if it aint broke there's no need to fix it.

Edited by aeropilot on Wednesday 4th March 08:53

IanH755

2,636 posts

144 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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But this new 3D camera section meant that Boeing could save a huge amount of money by not having to redesign the whole tail section of the 767 so that a human could actually look out of the window and actually see the A/C they were tanking with, and remember, saving Boeing money is the ONLY thing Boeing care about any more, not the end users experience (also see P8 low level problems, MCAS, Starliner failures etc etc).

I'm more amazed that Israel has decided to get 8 of these despite them not being full fit for duty yet as Israel is usually far more intelligent about its purchases!

Eric Mc

124,906 posts

289 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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Would a direct vision periscope type arrangement have been easier?

hutchst

3,727 posts

120 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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Nah. Wing mirrors.

Halmyre

12,312 posts

163 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
quotequote all
aeropilot said:
This issue has been a problem for some 5 or 6 years now...........and is still not resolved.

This is what happens when geeks want to replace a task that has bee done perfectly well by a human being for decades........

Technology for technology sake. Pointless waste of time and money.

The previous generation remote systems work perfectly fine in the existing tankers..........if it aint broke there's no need to fix it.

Edited by aeropilot on Wednesday 4th March 08:53
Geeks my sharney arse. A pound to a penny this arose out of a bean-counters brainfart meeting where someone said "why don't we just put a camera in the tail instead of going to the expense of hacking a porthole in the airframe?"

aeropilot

39,788 posts

251 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
quotequote all
IanH755 said:
But this new 3D camera section meant that Boeing could save a huge amount of money by not having to redesign the whole tail section of the 767 so that a human could actually look out of the window and actually see the A/C they were tanking with, and remember, saving Boeing money is the ONLY thing Boeing care about any more, not the end users experience (also see P8 low level problems, MCAS, Starliner failures etc etc).
Not quite, as the first gen remote system has been working OK in the KC-10's for years and in the Airbus tankers.......

USAF decided they wanted a much more whizzy new geeky one though rather than just use the one that works.......and which Boeing can't get to work.

As I said, if it ain't broke........


Ayahuasca

27,560 posts

303 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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Should have used the 727 airframe - could then drop the back stairs and run out to the fighter with a petrol pump nozzle.

aeropilot

39,788 posts

251 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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Ayahuasca said:
Should have used the 727 airframe - could then drop the back stairs and run out to the fighter with a petrol pump nozzle.
laugh

Eric Mc

124,906 posts

289 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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It has been done -


nikaiyo2

5,786 posts

219 months

Thursday 5th March 2020
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Ayahuasca said:
Should have used the 727 airframe - could then drop the back stairs and run out to the fighter with a petrol pump nozzle.
They could call it the DBC-71.

Tempest_5

605 posts

221 months

Saturday 7th March 2020
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The sad thing is the USAF initially chose the A330 MRTT (KC-30) but Boeing protested that things weren't fair and the competition rerun. Boeing then won with the KC-46.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS/Northrop_Grumma...

The RAF has now been successfully using the A330 MRTT/Voyager (slightly different I know, but...) since 2011.