On Mar 12, 5:56 pm, "Bob Gardner" wrote:
Don't you have that backward? Boeing's 767 tanker is flying in Italy (and
another country. Japan?) today and has been for a couple of years. EADS has
never built a tanker.

Bob Gardner

I believe that the design Boeing offered to the USAF was not the same
as the one currently being built for Italy and Japan- it's based on
the 767-200LRF airframe rather than the 767-200ER. And while the
airframes themselves have been flying since 2005, they only started
testing the refueling systems last year and none have actually entered
service yet. First deliveries are supposed to be in the first quarter
of 2008. It's still been around longer than the A330-MRTT variant,
but the disparity isn't as large as it first appears.

Boeing still has a great deal more experience building tankers, of
course, but I'd hesitate to call either of these designs significantly
more mature than the other.

-JTD