So big and yet so vulnerable (Credit: Boeing)
A shout out to some fun writing in the LA Times:
For sale: a mammoth four-engine plane that can haul 60-ton tanks, troops and medical gear across continents and still land on short, shoddy runways.
Price: about $240 million; volume discounts are available.
If interested, please contact Boeing Co. at your nearest air show.
That's from an article about Boeing's full scale assault on foreign markets for the C-17 Globemaster III, also known in some circles as Mighty Mouse, Buddha, Moose, and Barney.
Boeing has 38 jets on order, including 29 for the U.S. Air Force, 6 for the United Arab Emirates, 2 for Qatar and 1 for the United Kingdom. Potential buyers include India and Saudi Arabia, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram, which reported a week ago that Boeing is cutting back production from 15 to 10 jets annually in an effort to extend the Long Beach assembly plant's life beyond 2012.
Translation: layoffs likely among the 5,000 people who make the plane. More to come on that in mid-2011. A Boeing spokesman blames reduced domestic demand. President Obama figures the 223 Globemasters in service and on order are enough already. The Senate and House disagreed. They put in $2.5 billion for 10 more C-17s in the latest defense budget.
Some of the lobbyists who helped that happen: Long Beach Councilmen Robert Garcia and Gary DeLong, as well as Long Beach Government Affairs Director Tom Modica.
