Airbus Lobbies Hard At Washington Expo

Airbus really, really wants to build the next generation of US aerial refueling tankers. It's a deal that Boeing thought was done until questions about the Chicago-based company's ethics, numbers and the structure of a lease-purchase arrangement drew a hailstorm of criticism and a rethinking of the whole project at the Pentagon.

Airbus is making its pitch to the DoD at the Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition in Washington (DC). The Seattle Times reports Airbus and its parent company, EADS, were especially aggressive at the show, which ended on Wednesday.

The atmosphere at the Expo was strained by the fact that the Boeing and Airbus booths were directly across an aisle from each other. Executives from both companies could not only gather intelligence about who was looking at what, but they could shoot each other dirty looks when there weren't any customers around.

Boeing wants the government to go with its 767 as the platform for replacing the aging KC-135 -- an aircraft older than most of the crew members who serve on board. Airbus, on the other hand, is offering up its A330 as an alternative.

"We're not here to kill the competition," said the man who markets EADS tankers, Michael Folscheid. We're not here to capture 100 percent of the market," he said. "We're here to introduce our product. We're here to introduce competition."

Boeing says the A330 is too big, that the Air Force can fit more 767s on any given ramp. Airbus points out the 767 itself is bigger than the KC-135 both companies hope to replace.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has tasked the RAND Corporation with coming up with recommendations on replacing the tanker fleet -- or refurbishing the aircraft already in place.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.airbus.com, www.defenselink.mil