First Flight Of Boeing's Military Tanker Delayed

Boeing has delayed the first fully equipped flight of its military aerial tanker by about a month after incorrect chemicals were put through the plane's fuel system.

"This issue will extend the projected first flight date by roughly a month beyond the previous plan to fly in late August, early September," a Boeing spokesman said.

A "fuel substitute supplied by a vendor had been labeled compliant for a particular military use, when in fact it was not," he added.

Boeing said the fuel substitute was being used to approximate the weight of actual fuel in the fuel boom.

Delay of the KC-46 Pegasus tanker flight had been expected and marks another snag in its development. The problems have left Boeing little margin for error in meeting an August 2017 deadline for delivering the first 18 tankers to the US Air Force.

In July, Boeing took a USD$536 million after-tax accounting charge to cover design and development costs caused by other fuel system problems.

Under the fixed-price tanker contract, US government costs are capped at USD$4.9 billion and Boeing is responsible for development costs above that level.