Timeline: The Tangled 10-Year Odyssey Of The Air Force's New Tanker -- Popular Mechanics
What was once a simple deal for the Air Force to lease 100 planes from Boeing became a decade-long tale of lobbying, intrigue and corruption charges. Here's how.
It was a multibillion-dollar competition marred by corruption, greed and political intrigue. Who would have thought that aerial refueling tankers—essentially flying gas stations—could create so much drama?
Certainly not the Air Force, which in September 2001 saw an opportunity to push through a fast-track lease-to-own deal for 100 tankers based on Boeing's 767 aircraft. The Air force figured that an aircraft lease, like leasing a car, would allow it to buy something that it couldn't immediately afford: a fleet of new aircraft to replace its Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers.
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My Comment: A classic American story of greed, politics, and government functioning at its worst.