KC-46 first flight likely delayed

Boeing successfully flew the first 767-2C, which is the clean version of the KC-46. The first aircraft with a boom was scheduled to fly in April.

The Secretary of the Air Force has now told Congress that first flight is more likely to happen this summer, while the USAF executive officer for tankers said they're looking to fly before the end of June.

There's no contractual obligation for first flight of the tanker, just for delivery of the first batch. But any delays could snowball the program.

www.flightglobal.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

it's already 900 million over budget, due to (as mentioned in the article) wiring issues....really?....I thought they had bright people over there at Boeing, and since the plane itself is based on the 767, don't you think they would have figured out the already developed military specs for it?
p.s.....I'm just a layman in this area, but I read your posts quite oftern

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's not at all what I thought it was. Thanks for the update Zaphod!

a reply to: jimmyx

The Air Force is responsible for $500M over the contract price, the rest is on Boeing.

While it seems simple, converting a commercial aircraft to military specs is rather difficult. Commercial requirements are to have dual redundancy, the military requires triple redundancy. Part of the initial delay was problems adding the third wiring harness to EMD-1, which then had to be migrated to the other almost completed aircraft. They've encountered some problems integrating the boom, which uses a totally new control system.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Triple redundancy.. is that why the B-52 is still aloft?

a reply to: Bigburgh

It's mostly for damage, but it does help in other cases too.