Boeing has revealed details about cracks that recently prompted it to halt deliveries of KC-46 military tankers, while insisting the issue will not seriously disrupt the programme.
Speaking on 19 March, the company’s chief financial officer Brian West said the cracks affected the wings of the 767-based military aircraft.
“We saw a crack on the fixed-leading edge. There was no safety of flight issue and we are working very closely with the Air Force to support them,” says West, speaking during a Bank of America investor conference.
News broke in early March that Boeing had temporarily stopped delivering KC-46s to the US Air Force after discovering structural cracks in two recently assembled jets that Boeing had been preparing to turn over to the service.
The USAF said the pause started on 27 February, and neither it nor Boeing have provided a timeline for when deliveries will resume.
But West describes the issue as easily addressable, while stressing that the problem does not affect the type’s flight safety.
“The other good news is that, where this crack is, it’s very accessible, and the rework is not a big deal,” he says. “We’ve bounded it. We know how to fix it.”
“We don’t expect the tanker deliveries for the year to be affected by this,” West adds.
The KC-46 programme has been a major source of pain for Boeing, which has taken billions of dollars in charges against the jet due to quality problems, required redesigns of aircraft systems and other issues.
