Boeing, Airbus Chiefs Exchange Tanker Barbs

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/KCX102209.xml&headline=Boeing,%20Airbus%20Chiefs%20Exchange%20Tanker%20Barbs

 

Boeing's top executive denies that his company has gained unfair advantage in the battle for the U.S. Air Force's KC-X refueling tanker contract and charges that the competing EADS-Northrop Grumman team is using a government-subsidized platform.

 

"It's a topic of concern for us because we are proposing the same airplane" in the new tanker competition, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said during a press conference in Washington Oct. 20. "It's convenient for Boeing to have the breakdown of our costs. We could find it convenient to have the same."

Boeing Chairman, CEO and President James McNerney lashed back Oct. 21 at talk of Boeing's "purported" advantage. "Our competition somehow feels that we have some information coming out of the last protest about them that they don't have about us," McNerney said during a third quarter earnings call. "I'm not sure what they mean."