The Wall Street Journal’s August Cole reports that a federal court overruled an Air Force contract that exclusively gives Boeing Co. the right to supply midair refueling tankers or "gas stations in the sky." The relatively small Alabama Aircraft Industries Inc. successfully challenged a 4-yr., $1.1 billion interim deal, which the Air Force rewarded as it was figuring out how to reward a much larger, long-term contract for more modern tankers.

The battle for that contract– which with a potential worth of $100 billion will be the largest in Air Force history– pits Boeing Co. against the combination of Northrop Grunman and European Aeronautics Defense & Space Co. The Air Force has twice botched rewarding the contract. Now a contract proposal that first surfaced in 2002 will likely not be settled until well into the first-term of the next administration.-MB

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