Snapshot: EADS press conference, mainly on Tanker and USAF faux pas

We attended a press conference today in Washington (DC) with Sean O’Keefe, CEO of EADS North America, that covered a variety of issues but focused mainly on the KC-X tanker competition and most particularly the news last week that the USAF had sent proprietary information about the Boeing and EADS tanker bids to the wrong company.

First, O’Keefe remains in the neck collar from his near-fatal airplane accident in Alaska August 9 in which former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and three others were killed. Sean and his teenage son, Kevin, were about five survivors. O’Keefe’s spirits are good and he expressed that the random nature of those killed and who survived is proof that divine intervention is “real.”

Having interviewed O’Keefe on previous occasions, we are gratified to see his recovery progressing and him back at work.

Here is a quick snaphshot of O’Keefe’s remarks:

How many ways can the USAF screw up KC-X?

Defense News has this story about the USAF sending Boeing and EADS proprietary information about each company’s bids to the other by mistake.

How else can the government screw this competition up?

If you read the post carefully, the USAF also acknowledges for the first time what we have been saying for quite a while: the award will slip to early next year.

Update: It gets worse. Dominic Gates of The Seattle Times said the information including pricing data from each company, which is key in what is a price shoot-out competition.

This could have serious ramifications.

Our 787 forecast: 4-6 month delay

Update Nov. 22: Bloomberg News has this report detailing the source of the FOD.

Original Post:

It’s become a worldwide sport, trying to forecast how long the widely expected delay from the in-flight fire of Boeing 787 ZA002 will be.

Morgan Stanley predicts the first delivery of the 787 to All Nippon will slip from February to 2012. This is the most dire prediction.

Here’s ours, and this has several elements to it. Everything that follows is based on numerous conversations with many sources who have knowledge of events.

54 failures on QF A380

The Associated Press, via this story in The Seattle Times, details the in-flight emergency of the Qantas A380 after the No. 2 engine suffered an uncontained failure.

The account is very dramatic, particularly when the as-yet untold story of the Boeing 787 ZA002 is considered.

Qantas recorded 54 failures, including the near-deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) that does so only when there is a major system failure. The RAT, as we know, deployed on the 787.

737RE? Forgettaboutit

In what is, perhaps, the clearest signal Boeing isn’t going to re-engine the 737, and that it will take on the Airbus A320NEO head-on with an upgraded model, take a look at the last line of the AerCap press release announcing the signing of a letter of intent to order the 737-800–the first new-airplane order from Boeing from this previously all-Airbus new order customer: