Representative Asks For Tanker Bid Delay

August 24, 2008 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, EADS, Military Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, U.S. Air Force 

U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, from Connecticut, has written to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to ask him to delay the renewed bidding for the $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract. “It is important to get this decision right,” Courtney said, because it is “one of the most critical components of our national security.” Courtney is particularly concerned that there be adequate time for the RFP “to be vetted by the competitors and evaluated by Congress.”

The Pentagon is committed to a quick timetable, but Courtney argues that such an “unnecessarily aggressive timeline for a final decision, will once again tilt the outcome” in favor of EADS. Courtney is very interested in the process, because the Boeing tanker’s engines would be made by East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney.

More details on Courtney’s letter can be found at Hartford Business.

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GE wins contract to provide engines for the KC-45

March 31, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Connecticut, Contract Awards, EADS, GE, Pratt & Whitney, Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, logistics 

This article, is I hope, commentary and not a news story. Or perhaps it is one of those commentaries that masquerade as a news story. Yes, P&W lost the chance to build engines, but GE won. If Boeing had won the contract I doubt there would have been an article saying “GE loses contract.” As to how politicians could change this, that I still haven’t figured out, since the whole source selection process is supposed to be removed from such things.

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Pratt & Whitney invents jet engine cleaning system

January 7, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Department of Defense, Pratt & Whitney, commercial aviation, logistics 

This article in Wired describes how P&W has invented a jet engine cleaning system that is environmentally friendly as it catches all of the waste water. Cleaning engines may decrease fuel consumption up to 1.5%, which saves the aircraft’s owner quite a bit of money. Of interest, the Boeing 747 they are cleaning in the article belongs to North American Airline, who provides charter service to DoD moving troops back and forth from Iraq. There is probably a decent business in that too.

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