The first flight of the KC-46A program's test aircraft has been pushed back until mid-to-late November, with the first next-generation tanker not expected to fly until April, the program's top officer said today.

The Boeing 767-2C, a test version of the KC-46A without the refuelling boom and other tanker equipment, was expected to take flight earlier this summer, an event that was pushed back due to production issues. The first full KC-46A will now follow with its first flight in April, months after it was originally expected to fly, Maj. Gen. John Thompson, the tanker's program executive officer said Tuesday at the Air Force Association Air and Space Conference outside Washington, D.C.

"Scheduled performance has slipped a little in the last year due to the electrical work required on the first [engeinering and manufacturing development] aircraft," Thompson said.

The question of when the engineering and manufacturing development plane will take its first flight has shadowed the program since spring, when Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said publicly he expected the first flight by June. That never occurred, and Boeing said the flight would occur between July and September.

The issue causing the delay relates tothe layout of wiring systems in the front of the jet. The aircraft has about 120 miles of electrical wire, compared with 70 miles in a commercial 767, Thompson said.

The jet's electrical systems require multiple wires for the same systems to create redundancies in case of a failure. The redundant wires need to be spaced out to avoid one event — such as a fire — taking out all of the wires, Thompson said. During production, Federal Aviation Administration-certified Boeing employees found that the wires were too close together, violating both FAA and military standards. In response, workers have had to redesign the electrical layout of the jet, reinstalling 350 of 1,700 total wire bundles.

"This is not a big performance issue, this is not 'we discovered something that is not going to work,'" Thompson said Tuesday. "This is a compliance issue, it is something I'd much rather handle early on."

Meanwhile, the company had to take a $272 million hit when a wiring problem was discovered over the summer.

In August, Welsh expressed confidence in the program but acknowledged growing concerns about the first flight.

"If [first flight of the test plane] slips into next year, I think everybody is going to start to be concerned," Welsh said.

"I do not like to worry too early about things that have not happened yet. But, I think every time there is a slip in a major program, especially one that is due to deliver starting here in 2016, we want to make sure we stay on track," Welsh added. "We are close to the first aircraft being delivered, and so anything that happens between now and then has an impact."

The KC-46A is the first in a three-step process to replace the Air Force's tanker fleet, with a decision on the next step expected sometime in the 2020s.

Boeing is locked into a taxpayer-friendly engineering and manufacturing development contract for the program that caps the Air Force's costs at $4.9 billion.

The service is expected to field 179 of the aircraft, with delivery of the first 18 expected in 2017.

The Air Force has trained 11 pilots, using Boeing's commercial 767 training program in Miami. The pilots are now stationed at Boeing Field in Seattle. Twelve boom operators are beginning training this month. The Air Force expects to have 46 pilots and 32 boom operators trained by 2017.

Aaron Mehta contributed to this report.

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