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Air Force One is a recognizable symbol of American power, but the prestige generated by the presidential plane for its manufacturer Boeing it is waning amid a legal dispute in Texas and the prospect of delays and higher costs for U.S. taxpayers.
Boeing has reported to the U.S. Air Force that it expects a one-year delay to deliver the pair of adapted 747-8 aircraft. Each three-tier aircraft will be upgraded with a presidential office, a medical suite that can serve as an operating room and two galleys to feed up to 100 passengers.
Boeing has also called on the air force more money. The contract to redo the planes stands at $ 3.9 billion, below $ 5 billion after former President Donald Trump attacked the highest figure as “ridiculous.”
Meanwhile, Boeing and the failed supplier GDC Technics are suing each other in a San Antonio, Texas court over who is to blame for the delay.
The program represents a bit of Boeing’s front-line line, which totaled $ 58 billion by 2020. Still, it worries some analysts because it’s another black eye on a range of issues ranging from minor to catastrophic: the waste left in the USAF’s KC-46 fuel tanks. , the capsule of the Starliner crew that failed to reach the International Space Station, stopped the 787 deliveries and the two accidents of the 737 max which killed a total of 346 people.
The Air Force One problems contribute “to having a general impression that Boeing has serious shortcomings in the management and execution of the program, both in its commercial and military business,” said Teal analyst Richard Aboulafia.
“It’s one on top of the other, on top of another,” added Ron Epstein, a Bank of America analyst. “That’s the problem, not Air Force One per se. It’s another mess… It really makes you question what’s going on in your engineering organization.”
A Boeing spokeswoman said the company has brought together 50,000 engineers in a single function within the company to unify responsibility for security and that it appointed an aerospace security officer in January. He added that the KC-46 has flown more than 4,000 flights to the Air Force so far, Nasa and Boeing have successfully tested Starliner software for a second attempt to reach the ISS and Max is taking orders .
While prestigious projects rarely accrue profits, they do erode a company’s reputation. The Air Force One call sign can technically be applied to any aircraft carried by the President of the United States, but since the 1960s it refers to a specially equipped aircraft, with the presidential stamp and the American flag.
The two Boeing 747-200B aircraft they carry President Joe Biden they have 4,000 square feet of space, can supply fuel to the air, and have hardened the electronics on board to protect themselves from electromagnetic pulse interruption The communications equipment is built so that the aircraft can function as mobile command center if you attack the US.
The first of the current Air Force One aircraft entered service in 1990. The replacement aircraft are the 747-8s that crashed the now-defunct Russian airline Transaero, which was sitting on a “boneyard” aircraft in the Mojave Desert. They are being renovated in San Antonio, Texas.
Boeing contracted with GDC to design and build new interiors for the aircraft, as well as to do maintenance work on the current Air Force One aircraft. (The programs are known as VC-25B and VC-25A, respectively.) On April 7, Boeing sued GDC in a state court, saying the contractor had fallen behind on the production schedule, failing to meet specifications. of design and, despite Boeing’s financial assistance, did not have enough money to pay other suppliers and employees.
“GDC ‘s precarious situation continues to put Boeing’ s commitments in the [US Air Force] customer with VC-25A and VC-25B at risk, “the lawsuit said.” Boeing had no choice but to cancel the VC-25B and VC-25A subcontracts. “
“The company’s failures have caused millions of dollars in damage,” Boeing said, and demanded that GDC return parts, tools, drawings, raw materials and subcontractors ’contracts. The list of items the aerospace manufacturer wants extends to 11 pages and includes 25 gallons of “Spa White” paint.
GDC rejected it nine days later. In the lawsuit, the company said that while Boeing claimed it was terminating the contract due to GDC’s insolvency, the manufacturer “did not report to the U.S. Air Force that GDC’s financial problems were substantially caused by GDC’s defaults. Boeing of its contracts with GDC “.
The supplier’s financial stress comes from Boeing owing more than $ 20 million in payments, according to GDC’s lawsuit. He said the company was willing to return the material after Boeing paid, but the manufacturer had refused.
GDC’s lawsuit also said Boeing mismanaged the Air Force One program. He said GDC notified the Chicago-based company before Boeing demanded that the “VC-25B program as a whole has not followed the contractual schedule for more than 18 months and that GDC is currently awaiting a revised program of Boeing. GDC cannot be forced to comply with programming that it does not have.
“Because of its problems with engineering, program management, and its own financial difficulties, Boeing has lagged behind in the aircraft project schedule,” the lawsuit said. “Boeing looked at GDC as a scapegoat.”
GDC filed Chapter 11 bank protection on April 26 and laid off 223 employees.
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