Boeing Fails to Get Tanker Contract

It was announced today that the Boeing Corporation failed to get a long awaited contract to supply the US Air Force with refueling tankers, losing out to rival Airbus.

Boeing has lost the long-awaited and lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract to a competing bid based on an Airbus airplane, Air Force officials said Friday.

The newly named KC-45A plane will be produced by a partnership between Europe's EADS and Northrop Grumman, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said.

The outcome is a shocking upset, kept secret until just before the formal announcement today.

The Boeing loss means that the 767 assembly line in Everett will wind to a close around 2012 when the current commercial orders run out.

Being from Seattle, this is a bit of a blow to the local economy. This is also a bit of a blow to conspiracy theorists like Jim Fetzer who have long speculated that these KC-767 tankers were used in the 9/11 plot to hit the World Trade Center in 2001... 7 years before Boeing failed to get the contract to build them for the Air Force... so they could disguise them as commercial airliners to... oh nevermind...