Boeing Gets Split In Budget Battle

President Clinton gave Boeing Helicopters some good and bad news Monday when he proposed giving the V-22 Osprey aircraft the go-ahead while cutting funding for the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter.

Clinton’s fiscal 1996 budget proposal includes $811 million for development and production of the tilt-rotor Osprey, an experimental airplane-helicopter hybrid that helps keep thousands employed in Delaware County, Pa.

The money, along with $1.28 billion anticipated the following year, paves the way for building the first four Ospreys, a Marine Corps aircraft jointly developed by Boeing and Bell Helicopter-Textron.