Updated on April 27 with Boeing first-quarter financial report.
The fourth and final aircraft of Boeing's KC-46A flight-test program made its first flight on April 25. The EMD-3 aircraft, a baseline Boeing 767-2C “provisioned freighter” without an aerial refueling system installed, flew for one hour and 40 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 39,000 feet before landing at Boeing Field, south of Seattle.
Boeing has built four test aircraft under an engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract the U.S. Air Force awarded the company in February 2011. Two of the aircraft are configured as 767-2Cs and two as KC-46 tankers. Ultimately, both 767-2Cs will become KC-46 tankers.
In a report to Congress released earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office said Boeing faces a “challenging road ahead” to complete development flight testing and deliver 18 production tankers to the Air Force by August 2017, as the EMD contract envisioned. Boeing has said it will keep to that deadline, but flight testing will be ongoing through May that year as production deliveries are being made.
Releasing its first-quarter 2016 financials on April 27, Boeing said it took a $156 million after-tax charge, representing “an additional investment we made to maintain our schedule commitments” on the KC-46 program. The charge “primarily reflects the cost of incorporating engineering changes identified during testing into aircraft already built and in production, along with the certification of those changes,” Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing chairman, president and CEO said during a conference call.
Boeing has completed about 80 percent of the flight-test program required for the Air Force to make a “Milestone C” decision to start low-rate initial production, which the manufacturer expects by the end of the second quarter. It is concurrently ramping up production, with the first seven production aircraft flowing through its Everett, Wash. facility and orders placed with suppliers through the first 15 tankers.
“We have raised the level of enterprise focus on executing and delivery on that program. We’ve made some personnel changes to provide some additional oversight and emphasis on the program,” Muilenburg said, mentioning the appointment in March of Leanne Caret as president of Boeing Defense, Space and Security. “We’ve got the right people on the program,” he added.
The first test aircraft to fly—EMD-1, a 767-2C provisioned freighter—accomplished its maiden flight on Dec. 28, 2014, and since then has flown more than 315 hours, Boeing said. EMD-2, the first full KC-46A tanker, made its maiden flight on Sept. 25, 2015, and has completed 240 flight-test hours, including both dispensing fuel to other aircraft and receiving fuel from a KC-10 tanker. EMD-4, the second full tanker, first flew on March 2 and has completed 25 flight hours.
The EMD-3 aircraft will be used to conduct environmental control system testing, including hot day/cold day testing and smoke penetration testing, Boeing said.
While the Air Force has a requirement for 179 tankers, Boeing sees an overall market for 400 aircraft worth $80 billion. “We still see this in the long run as a franchise program, and one that will produce profitable growth for decades to come, both in terms of production and support to our customers. Without question this is an investment worth making,” Muilenburg said.
