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Topic: United State Air Force Bars Boeing From Future Rocket Work
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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!
Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 07-24-2003 10:21 PM
Since I know I will never work for Boeing I feel I can write my thoughts here without fear of retribution. In this case Boeing got what they earned and deserved. "What goes around comes around" or what the Japanese call "bachi".
I used to be a big fan of Boeing (mostly because of their airliners) but after seeing how they operate in what was my end of the space business, I'm now glad I wasn't interviewed or hired by them a few years ago. The former Hughes Space & Communications Group was a great company to work for and put out a quality product until it was bought out, first by GM, and then by Boeing to become the present Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS). They also bought out the former McDonnell Douglas space operation in Huntington Beach, which became the launch vehicle group involved in this suspension. Both companies cut experienced (and therefore expensive) staff to save money--they cut back so far that there is no longer much depth to their engineering or manufacturing knowledge base. And it shows in their in-orbit failure rate, which has greatly increased over the last few years. The guys designing and building spacecraft now are given to re-inventing the wheel, and making dumb newbie mistakes all over again. And the guys that have to sell, support, and launch these spacecraft are terribly overloaded due to the "lean and mean" staffing levels.
I used to work for an exclusive customer of theirs, and often heard about their management exhortations about work weeks. The attitude over there was "if you're not putting in 65-80 hours a week, we don't consider you to be very serious about your job." Nice way to maintain high quality standards, right? My old company eventually became dissatisfied enough with the Boeing attitude and service record that they signed with Orbital to build their next three spacecraft, and outright cancelled a previous Boeing spacecraft order due to continual cost and schedule overruns.
Will Boeing learn anything from this? We'll see. The word is this suspension won't last too long, mostly because the Air Force gets nervous if they have only one contractor bidding in a given area. I predict Boeing should be able to bid on Air Force contracts again before the year is out. Boeing bought their way into the space business, but they haven't done what it takes to maintain the high standards that had been in place before. Indeed they've done the opposite with all their cost cutting. And yet they still don't seem to be very happy with the financial results. Maybe they should spin their space businesses off to entities that will be happy with the margins available in the space business.
As a pilot I still like and admire the engineering work that has gone into the airliners made by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, but a lot of that is due to the fact that I strongly disagree with the Airbus view of the role of the pilot in aircraft control matters, as well as their views on redundancy of primary flight control systems. If I was an airline looking to buy transport-catagory jets I'd still buy Boeing, but it's not like I have much of a choice.
[ 07-25-2003, 10:33 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 07-25-2003 09:38 PM
Maybe this is a way for the USAF to deflect criticism from that stupid 767 tanker lease deal that they're trying to do with Boeing?
It's too bad to see formerly good companies doing stuff like this out of desperation. I'm not a pilot, but I've taken countless flights (and spoken with pilots) on 727s,737s,747s,757s, and 767s. Although I don't have any real basis for saying this, my impression is that all of these are extremely well built, safe, and reliable aircraft (if anyone disagrees, I'd be curious to know why).
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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man
Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 07-25-2003 10:14 PM
Travis, that's funny. There is an old story about the SPAD aircraft. It was the same propeller aircraft you may have seen in the movie "Flight Of The Intruder". The SPAD was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft, and basically it was an airframe bulted to an R-3350 18-cyl recip engine swinging a 4-bladed 16 foot propeller.
As the story goes at an airshow on board a carrier years ago, the AD was taxing to the catapult for "cat shot." The bullhorn was relaying specifications to the spectators, and said something to the effect that; "The Douglas Skyraider was capable of carrying more of a payload than the B-25 in WW II."
When the cat stroke initiated, it was a "cold cat" and it fired the Skyraider into the drink.
The anouncement continued over the bullhorn: "But not quite as far." ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Travis, did you work at the multiplex on the south side of Mindrot in the early '80s? If so, I serviced that theatre a couple of times. That was the theatre that when the roof hatch of the booth was open on a bright sunny day around noon the sunshine found its way into the control module of an AW-3 and drove it nuts. A couple of other techs never found that trouble, I was just there at the right time to make an assessment and saw it happen. There was a screw left out that holds the module in.
If not, where is your theatre? There is a good possibility I might have to travel to Wisconsin next week. If road time permits, I just might drop in and say hello if it is OK with you. Also, as I drive through West Fargo, I plan on stopping there to harass Josh for a few hours.
Scott, the Boeing aircraft are among the world's best. I hope they don't cheapen them up in the name of profits.
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