MILPLEX
Boeing CEO Still Hopes For Air Force Tanker Deal
 Washington DC (AFP) Oct 11, 2004
 Boeing's top executive said Monday the aerospace giant still hopes to win a contract for new Air Force tanker refueling planes, despite action by Congress killing a controversial lease plan. "If there is a contract for tankers Boeing will get it," Boeing chief executive Harry Stonecipher told reporters in a conference call.

"The US Air Force needs tankers, that's clear and the (Boeing) 7E7 is an excellent tanker ... and we will find ways to satisfy" the Pentagon's needs.

The comments came just after lawmakers killed a proposal by Boeing to lease, then sell dozens of its 767 tanker jets.

The 23-billion-dollar program, which had been approved earlier this year, then suspended, faced criticism as a sweetheart deal for the aerospace company.

To make matters worse, a former US Air Force official who was involved in the tanker deal and later went to work for Boeing, Darlene Druyun, admitted violating federal conflict-of-interest rules and was sentenced recently to nine months in prison.

The end of the leasing deal could open up competition to Boeing's archrival Airbus, Boeing has already lost substantial commercial market share to the European plane maker.

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