Teasing reporters assembled for a press conference/lunch, EADS North America piled 17 binders full of the company's 8,000-page proposal for the KC-X contract on the table behind my chair. Most annoyingly, the binders were taped shut. A spokesman thumbed through one of the apparently least sensitive binders (way too briskly, I might add) in my presence just to confirm they were real.
A different set of the same binders -- as well as a six CD-ROM package -- were delivered by EADS vice president Jim Hvizd to the KC-X source selection committee at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, this morning. For those keeping score, EADS delivered their proposal one day earlier than Boeing.
Perhaps a Hawker Beechcraft King Air wasn't available, or EADS didn't worry about playing any "buy American cards" with the choice of chartered aircraft. But give them points for style. It was the very Italian-made Piaggio Aero P180 Avanti that for EADS delivered a cargo potentially worth a $35 billion contract.
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