By the summer of 1944, 15 airframe builders were producing 23 types of combat aircraft.
"Selecting the 747 airframe provides a dedicated platform that gives us the capacity to substantially increase our payload to orbit without increasing our prices".
It said the specifications unfairly favored Boeing's smaller, 767-based tanker over the Airbus A330 airframe that EADS has pitched.
The forecast includes $350 million in cash that would come if the company can complete a disputed deal with the United States Air Force to lease or buy 100 aerial refueling tankers derived from the Boeing 767 airframe.
Mr. McNerney said Boeing was studying various options, including the possibility of adapting technology from its 787 Dreamliner, before deciding whether to go straight to a new narrow-body jet or to put new engines on the longserving 737 airframe.
The company said its Japanese partners designed and developed 35 percent of the 787 airframe structure, including the main wing box, which is the first time Boeing has ever entrusted such a critical design component to another company.
It would be tragic if Airbus wins the $35 billion contract to build the Air Force refueling tanker, sending 44,000 jobs to Europe, thanks to subsidies used to build the A330 airframe — government aid that the United States rival bidder Boeing did not enjoy.
The Russian Federation will soon deploy a new Open Skies aircraft, equipped with modern digital optical and infrared sensors and an imaging radar system, while the United States struggles to keep aloft an aging Boeing 707 airframe equipped with archaic film-based cameras.
tiltrotor based on XR-1 airframe; not built.
The Ju 87 R-1 had a B-1 airframe with the exception of a modification in the fuselage which enabled an additional oil tank.
Boeing says it purchased 65percentt of the 787 airframe, which is comparable to the 777.
