"Say, Honey, Have You Met The New Folks Next Door?"

Perhaps taking a page from Boeing's own playbook, arch-rival EADS is shopping for a US manufacturing site -- and one possibility is home of a major Boeing plant -- Everett, WA.

Officials from 35 states in all met with EADS executives in Washington, DC, Tuesday, trying to get the inside track on EADS's planned $600 million plant, to be built somewhere in the US. The plant would build the EADS version of a new-generation aerial refueling tanker -- in direct competition with Boeing's 767 tanker project.

Boeing actually won the competition to lease and sell 100 new tankers to the Air Force, only to lose the contract when the woman leading the Air Force negotiating team ended up with a cush job at Boeing shortly thereafter. Darleen Druyun and Boeing CFO Michael Sears were fired over that scandal. CEO Phil Condit abruptly resigned a short time later.

EADS proposes to modify its Airbus A330 to suit the military's aerial refueling needs. Competition for the $23.5 billion contract is still underway.

FMI: www.eads.net, www.boeing.com