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President Bill Clinton presented the nation's top award for quality - the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award - to The Boeing Company Airlift and Tanker Programs on February 4, 1999. Dr. David Spong, then vice president and general manager of A & T Programs, accepted the crystal and gold trophy in a ceremony at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Click on the buttons to the right to view videos of the ceremony and the C-17 in action.
Airlift and Tanker Programs is a part of Military Aircraft and Missile Systems Group, the St. Louis-based defense segment of The Boeing Company. Airlift and Tanker builds the C-17 Globemaster III for the U.S. Air Force and is also responsible for aerial tanker aircraft and other U.S. Air Force/U.S. Navy airlift programs. President Clinton flew into Bosnia aboard C-17s in 1996 and 1997.
Congress established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1987 to enhance U.S. competitiveness by promoting quality awareness, recognizing quality achievements of U.S. companies, and publicizing successful performance strategies.
The Airlift and Tanker Programs component employs nearly (more than) 8,000 people in Long Beach and has another 1,000 in locations around the country, specifically Macon, Ga; San Antonio, Texas; Altus Air Force Base, Okla.; Charleston Air Force Base, S.C.; and RAF Brize Norton in the United Kingdom. Airlift and Tankers also won a 1996 California Governor's Quality Award.
The Air Force has contracted for 120 C-17s through the year 2004. The C-17 is capable of carrying 85 tons of cargo over intercontinental distances, yet can land on austere airfields as short as 3,000 feet. It operates with a three-person crew.
Other Airlift and Tanker products and services include the KC-10 Air Force refueling aircraft, the C-32A Executive Transport, the C-40A U.S. Navy Fleet Essential Airlift and maintenance support for the C-17s and KC-10s.