*Sources: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) PARIS, France - June 18, 2009: Boeing's C-17 production line will stave off closure until the summer of 2011 if new funding for U.S. purchases of the aircraft are signed off, an official said June 17. 
Members of the media, right, view a US Air Force Boeing-made Globe Master III, on the eve of the opening of the Paris Air Show, Sunday June 14, 2009. The Paris Air Show will take place here, at the Bourget airport, north of Paris from June 15 to June 21. Visible in background is an Ariane V rocket mock up.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted through $2.2 billion of funding for C-17 purchases June 16 as part of the fiscal 2009 supplemental bill, money that would purchase eight aircraft, said Jean Chamberlain, vice president for Global Mobility Systems at Boeing IDS.
"The Senate now votes on the funding, then the White House must sign off, but if it passes, the order will give the line work until the summer of 2011," Chamberlain said.
The line, which produces about 15 aircraft a year, has work until the start of 2011.
A Boeing spokesman said Tuesday that by helping keep the Long Beach, Calif., line open, the new U.S. orders were "extending international opportunities" to sell the C-17. 
Members of the media, right, view a US Air Force Boeing-made Globe Master III, on the eve of the opening of the Paris Air Show, Sunday June 14, 2009. The Paris Air Show will take place here, at the Bourget airport, north of Paris from June 15 to June 21. Visible in background is an Ariane V rocket mock up.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted through $2.2 billion of funding for C-17 purchases June 16 as part of the fiscal 2009 supplemental bill, money that would purchase eight aircraft, said Jean Chamberlain, vice president for Global Mobility Systems at Boeing IDS.
"The Senate now votes on the funding, then the White House must sign off, but if it passes, the order will give the line work until the summer of 2011," Chamberlain said.
The line, which produces about 15 aircraft a year, has work until the start of 2011.
A Boeing spokesman said Tuesday that by helping keep the Long Beach, Calif., line open, the new U.S. orders were "extending international opportunities" to sell the C-17. A US Air Force Boeing-made C-17 Globemaster III is shown in the foreground as an Airbus A380 is taxied before its demonstration flight, at Le Bourget, north of Paris, during the 48th Paris Air Show, Wednesday June 17, 2009.
Speaking at the Paris Air Show, Chamberlain said that Boeing had had "multiple" informal inquiries from potential A400M customers concerned about delays to the European transport aircraft program. "But there have been no discussions, no RFIs or RFPs," she said.
Chamberlain said that the A400M would cost 38 percent more to purchase than a C-17 and would be 45 percent more expensive to operate.
The delivery of the first of three C-17s ordered by a pool of NATO nations would take place July 27, she said, with the second and third aircraft to be delivered in September and October.
"We are also in negotiations with the UAE," she said. "They need four aircraft and we hope to conclude talks this year with all aircraft delivered by the end of 2010."
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