January 22, 2008

Sabreliner to Manufacture Rudders for KC-135

Sabreliner Corp. has been awarded a contract by The Boeing Company to build replacement rudders for the U.S. Air Force fleet of KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft used primarily for aerial refueling. Sabreliner will draw upon the resources of its three Southeast Missouri manufacturing, machining and assembly operations to undertake the work.

The contract is valued at more than $15 million. It is another in a series of Boeing 707-related contracts that began nearly a decade ago, and will utilize Sabreliner's expanded aviation manufacturing capabilities. The manufacturing will take place at Sabreliner's Ste. Genevieve, Mo. operation.

"We are pleased to have earned Boeing's confidence over the years and look forward to continue supporting its business needs. This contract for new production draws upon our original manufacturer skills and positions Sabreliner well for more business of this type," said F. Holmes Lamoreux, chairman and chief executive officer of Sabreliner.

The KC-135 is a military derivative of the Boeing 707 aircraft. Sabreliner's earliest 707 work was on the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS) in 1998. Sabreliner's connection with the 707 airframe has continued with the KC-135 Flight Control Surface program, which was awarded in 2002 and today includes the maintenance and repair of such flight control components as flaps, ailerons and stabilizers.

Under that program, more than 50 distinct components are delivered to Sabreliner's Ste. Genevieve, Mo. operation for each KC-135 aircraft undergoing heavy maintenance. More than 60 component shipsets have been inspected, repaired, painted and returned to service during the last five years.

Within the past year, Sabreliner began overhauling components for the E-6B aircraft, a version of the Boeing 707 operated by the Navy. In addition, Sabreliner recently added in-depth maintenance work on KC-135 components under a special Air Force program.

The KC-135 was first flown in August of 1956 and entered service with the Air Force in June of 1957. The last tanker was delivered to the Air Force in 1965. Over those eight years, a total of 732 KC-135s were built and delivered to the Air Force, and more than 500 remain in service today.