Boeing (sniff sniff) Gets What They Deserved

Boeing: didn't lose on a technicality. Grumman had the best plane in almost all categories. The bid was for a refueling tanker. Boeing was lazy and didn't even design a new plane. Instead, they simply used an existing transport that had much lower fuel capacity.

In a report on Monday, Thompson wrote that Boeing matched the appeal of the Northrop bid only in the area of proposal risk. And that came only after Air Force reviewers pressed Boeing to stretch out its aggressive development schedule for a new version of its 767 jet, which added to the cost. The Boeing proposal was initially rated "high-risk" because reviewers worried that Boeing's plan to build a new version of the 767 using parts from other versions would add to the cost.Northrop proposed a tanker based on the Airbus A330 aircraft built by Europe's EADS Northrop-EADS won in four of the five criteria set by the Air Force: mission capability, past performance, price, and an integrated fleet assessment, according to Thompson. "Although some observers expected that the Northrop team would offer a better price, nobody expected that they would be better in every significant regard," Thompson told Reuters.

Now for Boeing itself: they went into the bidding with an attitude. "We know what's best," seems to sum it up and they did not change their design even when told to do so. There will be more on this....