Inside Boeing’s plans to fix its troubled KC-46A tanker
Breaking Defense toured Boeing’s Seattle-area facilities where the KC-46A is built, and company officials explained fixes in the works for six critical issues, from new cameras to better seals on fuel lines.
By MICHAEL MARROW
on January 18, 2024 at 9:13 AM
EVERETT, Wash. — In the wake of Boeing’s KC-46A Pegasus topping $7 billion in losses, company officials have been eager to stem the tide of the tanker’s long-running woes — and resolve several critical issues that pose risks to its operations.
The Pegasus currently has six category 1 deficiencies, Air Force terminology for problems that could cause loss of an aircraft, injury, or death. Spending money to fix those issues has helped drive Boeing’s staggering losses on the program, and is a key reason why company officials have sworn off fixed-price development contracts like those that govern the KC-46A.
Work to address the tanker’s predicaments starts in the Seattle suburb of Everett, Wash., where Boeing builds the commercial 767 and converts it into the KC-46A tanker. In a recent tour of these facilities, Breaking Defense spoke with company officials about how they plan to fix several of the tanker’s pressing issues, as well as how the aircraft can evolve for future missions.
The KC-46A starts out like other 767s on the company’s enormous Everett assembly line. Here, in the world’s largest building by volume, a 767 comes together, undergoing steps like fuselage and wing assembly all the way up to painting tails with customers’ preferred finishes.
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/01/inside-boeings-plans-to-fix-its-troubled-kc-46a-tanker/
