Back in March, I wrote here:
Apparently, yes. The Ilyushin intrusion into the KC-X race quickly fizzled. Maybe it was someone in Moscow's idea of a prank.
But now there's a new development.
My buddy John Bennett at Defense News got the big scoop this morning: Antonov is joining the race for the KC-X contract. Bennett quotes an industry source and has a copy of the cooperation pact detailing the plans.
I confirmed the story an hour ago by looking up a regulatory filing submitted yesterday by Antonov's US-based partner for KC-X, which is a small company I've never heard of called US Aerospace Inc.
As I reported on Flightglobal's news section, the 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission confirms the US Aerospace/Antonov team's intent to compete for KC-X.
Here's where it gets weird. Three different Antonov aircraft will be offered. The well-known An-124-100 is in the mix, perhaps in the unlikely case the US Air Force decides it needs a four-engine tanker slightly larger than the C-5 to replace the KC-135E. Another aircraft to be proposed is called the An-122, which Bennett reports is a two-engine variant of the An-124. The third aircraft is the real mystery. It's designated the An-112 in the regulatory filing. The only reference I can find to such an aircraft is a Wikipedia entry for the An-12, but it's listed as a concept for a jet-powered, swept-wing variant! (Think of a C-130 that looks like a B-47 and you get the idea.)
Can this competition get crazier? Yes, it can.
A Los Angeles-based attorney, who lists hot-tubbing with a glass of bordeaux as a hobby and known mostly as the editor of a best-selling book compiling love letters of great men, is fronting a new bid for the KC-X contract based on the Ilyushin Il-96, a four-engined airliner and cargo transport never previously (to my knowledge) operated as a tanker.
Can this competition possibly get any stranger?
Apparently, yes. The Ilyushin intrusion into the KC-X race quickly fizzled. Maybe it was someone in Moscow's idea of a prank.
But now there's a new development.
My buddy John Bennett at Defense News got the big scoop this morning: Antonov is joining the race for the KC-X contract. Bennett quotes an industry source and has a copy of the cooperation pact detailing the plans.
I confirmed the story an hour ago by looking up a regulatory filing submitted yesterday by Antonov's US-based partner for KC-X, which is a small company I've never heard of called US Aerospace Inc.
As I reported on Flightglobal's news section, the 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission confirms the US Aerospace/Antonov team's intent to compete for KC-X.
Here's where it gets weird. Three different Antonov aircraft will be offered. The well-known An-124-100 is in the mix, perhaps in the unlikely case the US Air Force decides it needs a four-engine tanker slightly larger than the C-5 to replace the KC-135E. Another aircraft to be proposed is called the An-122, which Bennett reports is a two-engine variant of the An-124. The third aircraft is the real mystery. It's designated the An-112 in the regulatory filing. The only reference I can find to such an aircraft is a Wikipedia entry for the An-12, but it's listed as a concept for a jet-powered, swept-wing variant! (Think of a C-130 that looks like a B-47 and you get the idea.)
Can this competition get crazier? Yes, it can.
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