The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 12)

The author states "What I know about airplane technology could fit in a thimble, with room left over; and I used to live in Mobile." Yes, that about sums it up; writing about a subject about which he knows next to nothing, and which may happed to benefit him personally. I really wish that the Spectator could stick to a higher standard of authorship in the future.

A few points Mr. Hillyer might acquaint himself with:

* It sounds awfully American to describe the 'NGE' aircraft as from Northrop, but when you get right to it, it's an Airbus. The entire basic design was by Airbus. So call a spade a spade, please.

*Airbus is the same company that has repeatedly used huge subsidies to sell their planes at, by any rational accounting standard, a loss. Including this airplane. Is this the sort of practice a conservative would reward?

* Britain bought the A330...so what? The wing was designed and built there, so they're just shopping locally.

* Italy and Japan operate the 767 tanker. Don't they count? If export sales are an indication of superiority, then consider all of them.

* Comparing two such aircraft is an enormously complicated task. The outcome all depends on how valuable the customer considers many diverse attributes. So a reference to one chart, produced by one of the competitors, is hardly an unbiased or comprehensive statement.

* As an example of how the choice is difficult and non-intuitive consider: the 767 is slightly smaller, which seems like a disadvantage in a transport aircraft. But one plane can only refuel one other. The same amount of money will generally buy more of the smaller aircraft, so that means that more aircraft can be refueled at one time with the smaller plane.

* "Buy American" does indeed matter. I don't recommend it as an inviolable policy, but in general it makes good sense. A purchase from Boeing is an investment in America...buying the A330 is an investment in Europe. There is a difference.

p>Thank you. br> -- Jesse Nadel /p>

One of the strongest arguments against what Quin is suggesting is stated up front in his argument, the EAD design is clearly superior in every way that matters. Add to this that these aircraft will be in service over 40-50 years and those life cycle costs are going to add up to the purchase price of a lot of aircraft we don't get down the road. The fundamental problem here is simply that Boeing is offering an older less efficient design vs. the Airbus A300 class. That's why the 787 Dreamliner was designed. That Boeing isn't or can't offer a tanker version of the 787 to compete with the A330 design says something important. The current choice is like General Motors offering a 1990 Silverado up against one of the newer Nissan or Toyota equals. The life cycle cost difference between these two aircraft would eliminate the Boeing offering alone all else equal. I would prefer a homegrown design but for the same reasons I bought a 1989 Honda Accord and still drive it every day I wouldn't buy an American design just because it was American designed. Back when there was competition within the American Aircraft industry we probably would have had more choices than the older and less capable 767 design.

p>An enterprising student might suggest we pick the better plane and split the work between both EAD and Boeing. That has been done in other military contracts but I suggest the original savings one design offers over the other gets eaten away in government mandated overhead between the two companies over time. If the contract stays between the 767 design and the A330 design, Boeing loses if cost, performance and life cycle cost matters. Boeing needs to step up to the plate with a modern design and real soon.

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