Boeing says it will soon have to decide on stopping C-17 production

Boeing Co. warned on Sept. 13 that it will have to decide as early as January whether to shut down production of its giant C-17 transport plane if the U.S. does not decide on additional orders soon.

The U.S. Air Force's last order, for 60 of the workhorse cargo planes, would be enough to keep the No. 2 defense contractor's assembly line in Long Beach, California going through mid-2008, said C-17 program manager David Bowman.

The shutdown would only happen in 2008 but because of long lead times on supplies, a decision must be made in January 2006, Bowman said.

Article link


I really would hate for them to stop making new C-17s, in my opinion it is the best military cargo plane there is.



[edit on 14-9-2005 by NWguy83]

The C-17 is a great transport better than the C-5 IMHO I hope that they don't shut down the production line particulary because the way the world is going we have to maintain our force projection capabilities you never know when Iran or North Korea will step out of line and even in the case of natural disasters like the tsunami or katrina the C-17 were handy for the airlifting of emergency supplies to those hard hit regions.

Wasn't the UK going to order some more to supplement the ones it purchased off the USAF?

EDIT: Whoops:

Boeing, which has won orders for the aircraft from Great Britain and Canada, is also talking to several NATO members about buying the planes, but none of those orders would be big enough to keep the production line open.

[edit on 15/9/05 by Infidellic]