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Comment by Eelongate | Hacker News Reader

This article is about the F-18 Super Hornet, which Boeing manufactures. However I think it's interesting to note that the F-18 and F-15 were both designed by McDonnell Douglas. The last time Boeing designed a successful fighter jet on their own was never.

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Tanker and bomber aircraft complimented their business better. Those products have been fantastically successful.

That had been true, but the recent KC-46 tanker is far from successful.

The KC-46 is somewhere at $5B in losses to Boeing (the USAF wrote the program contract defensively, for once) and years behind schedule.

And as for bombers, Northrop Grumman is at the pole position with the B-21 Raider contract.

The B-52 will be flying forever, but that can't be a major revenue win for Boeing.

The F/A-18E/F is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the Navy (and Air Force) are both starting up new fighter programs (aka Next Generation Air Dominance, separate for each service).

The maintenance contracts on the B-52s alone are worth tens of billions of dollars. And like you pointed out, they're going to keep renewing those contracts for decades to come.

Yes, but there are apparently 76 active + 18 reserve. And notably only used by the USAF.

That's a lot of planes, and a huge contract, but it's not a recipe for growth.

True but they just introduced their very successful piston-engined P-26 fighter [1] a mere 89 years ago. Barely even had time to design a follow up! /s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_P-26_Peashooter

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