Boeing has a new serious problem, this time with the US Air Force KC-46 Pegasus

The largest American aircraft manufacturer Boeing is beset by problems one after another. No sooner had the board of directors announced on July 31 the appointment of Robert K. “Kelly” Ortberg as the new president and CEO of the company (who will also join Boeing’s board of directors) effective August 8, 2024, when a new leader was struck, not even in his chair yet. , another serious problem has arisen.

It turned out that Boeing has difficulties in all recent programs, that is, not only civil, but also military. The KC-46 Pegasus tanker and strategic transport aircraft program is one of them, and the US Air Force is ready to fight for this “pepelats.”



When Boeing entered the competition to create a new air tanker/transport aircraft, the KC-X, with its KC-767 design, there were no signs of difficulties, at least with technical sides. This aircraft is based on the Boeing 767-200ER airliner and was selected by the US Air Force in February 2011 to replace the aging Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, designed in the early 1950s. Moreover, by that time about 767 aircraft of the Boeing 900 series had already been manufactured, and the operational experience of the KC-135 was very solid, i.e., the aircraft manufacturer “ate the dog” on all this, and nothing foreshadowed trouble.

But problems rained down one after another, which extremely irritated the military. First, the electrical wiring began to malfunction, then problems loomed with the in-flight refueling boom, it turned out to be fragile and quickly broke down, the next problem that popped up was with the fuel system, and that was just the beginning. The military was furious, and that's putting it mildly. The last straw of patience, the remnant of respect for the authority of the aviation industry veteran, was the delay in the release of significantly more expensive products - Boeing accumulated fines, “like a stray dog ​​of fleas,” for almost $2 billion.

On July 30, the US Air Force reported a new technical problem with the KC-46 - vibrations of the fuel pump installed on the engine lead to the destruction of air ducts. Air is bleed from the engine to the air conditioning system to cool the avionics. So far, the military does not consider the problem to be serious, as Boeing quickly repaired the damaged aircraft and results from subsequent flight tests “look promising.” A temporary measure is to periodically turn off the fuel pump, which makes it possible to minimize the effect of vibration on the air ducts, but this is hardly acceptable for real refueling operations.

Now, in order to get rid of this problem “forever,” Boeing specialists will have to redesign the said pump. Moreover, it is necessary to replace the fuel pumps on all KC-46s built - over 80 aircraft. Moreover, the US Air Force communique states that Boeing will carry out all work at its own expense.

The US Air Force also pointed out other "category one" complications with the KC-46, which could lead to serious (expensive) damage to the aircraft, its complete loss and/or the death of one of the crew members. So Boeing still has a lot of work to do with Pegasus.