Free Republic

An advertisement placed in The Seattle Times on Wednesday by a group hoping to encourage Washington state to keep up its fight to secure the coveted work on the new Boeing 777 includes a notable miscue. At the top of the full-page ad, under the all-caps text "The Future of Washington," is pictured not a Boeing jet, but rather an A320 from archrival Airbus.

WASHINGTON — The United States is battling to win Qatar’s multi-billion-dollar fighter-jet competition. Industry sources said the administration of President Barack Obama has been lobbying the Gulf Cooperation Council emirate to select a U.S. warplane for Doha’s largest combat air project. The sources said the administration has succeeded in delaying Qatar’s tender, which included proposals from Britain and France. “After Saudi Arabia, the Qatar project will be the biggest aircraft procurement for years to come,” a source said. The sources said Qatar, which established an evaluation panel, was moving slowly in a tender for up to 72 advanced fighter-jets, a...

SEATTLE — Seattle City Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant told Boeing machinists her idea of a radical option, should their jobs be moved out of state “The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.

Shares of Boeing (BA) climbed into the green early Monday after the jet maker unveiled fresh orders for its upcoming 777x and struck a new supply deal with a major firm in the United Arab Emirates. The Chicago-based Dreamliner maker racked up roughly $100 billion in orders with Middle Eastern carriers on the first day of the 2013 Dubai Airshow. The 342 orders in the fast-growing market doubled those awarded to rival Airbus.

With the news last week that Machinists’ union members employed by Boeing in Puget Sound overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract that would have meant years worth of work on the new Boeing 777X, much of the attention was focused on what it would mean for union members’ future and where the work would go following their rejection. As the long-term contract they voted down had numerous concessions, it is understandable that it would have been a hard sell to get the members to accept it. Yet, that hard sell by local union leaders did not take place. In fact, the...

DUBAI—Emirates Airline on Sunday placed a $76 billion order with Boeing Co. BA +0.73% at the Dubai airshow for 150 of the manufacturer's new 777X aircraft, helping make the model the largest product launch in commercial jetliner history. The Dubai-based carrier, which is the world's largest international airline by capacity, is the biggest scalp so far for Boeing as it is the largest operator of the manufacturer's current 777 fleet, with more than 120 in service. Qatar Airways, meanwhile, placed an order for 50 Boeing 777X worth $19 billion, and Emirates said it had purchase rights for a further 50...

On August 27, Boeing flew the Advanced Super Hornet demonstrator for reporters and visiting delegations from Denmark and Brazil at its St. Louis facility. Visible are the Northrop Grumman conformal fuel tanks on the upper fuselage and Boeing-build centerline enclosed weapons pod. The sunset could be farther off than thought for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the mainstay of the U.S. Navy’s carrier-based fighter fleet. With initial operational capability of the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter that will eventually replace the F/A-18 now planned in early 2019, Boeing and partner Northrop Grumman are proposing an “Advanced Super Hornet” upgrade designed to operate...

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing's history in the Pacific Northwest dates back more than a century, when William Boeing purchased a Seattle shipyard that would become his first airplane factory. In recent years, however, those ties have been fraying, first with the company shifting its headquarters to Chicago, then with the development of a new production line in South Carolina. Now, the relationship between Boeing and Washington state is near the point of unraveling after a fiery debate among machinists this week led the workers to reject a long-term contract. On Thursday, Boeing made good on its threats and said it...

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) leadership had negotiated a new contract with Boeing that would have taken effect in 2016. The deal called for cuts in wage increases for union members, reduced health care benefits and lower company contributions to its defined benefit retirement plan. Some 67% of IAM members voted to reject the deal, and the union local president said that members had “preserved something sacred by rejecting the Boeing proposal. We’ve held on to our pensions and that’s big. At a time when financial planners are talking about a ‘retirement crisis’ in America, we...

This will probably come as no surprise to those who watched the federal government stepping in to help unions strongarm manufacturers in the last few years, but Boeing is back in the news with more labor issues. The aerospace giant is getting ready to unveil their newest jet – the 777X – which had been widely expected to be built in the Seattle area as so many of their other lines have been. But at the last minute, the unions decided the deal wasn’t fat enough for their tastes. Boeing workers’ rejection of a new labour deal has sent the...

Members of the Machinists union vote today on a contract with Boeing that the aircraft maker says will determine whether it will build the next generation of its 777 jets at its Seattle manufacturing hub. About 20,000 jobs at Boeing and its suppliers are riding on the decision of where to build the 777X, which is set to become a key part of its fleet. Also at stake is the Machinsts' pension plan, which will be converted into a 401(k) type of retirement program if the contract is approved. That change has sparked anger among Boeing workers, and raised the...

<p>NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Boeing broke ground on another South Carolina manufacturing plant on Tuesday and company officials said the initial job of making jet engine air inlets could one day be expanded to a variety of propulsion work.</p>

EVERETT -- A couple hundred Machinist union members held an unofficial rally Monday outside their union hall near Paine Field to protest a contract extension offer negotiated in secret by the Boeing Co. and the union's international leadership.The message: Boeing's promise to build the 777X in Everett, in exchange for significant changes in retirement and health benefits, among other things, will undercut the union and is a bluff by the Chicago-based company's leadership."They're trying to kill us. Period," said Wilson Ferguson, a delivery mechanic on the 737 line in Renton and president of Local A. "At the end of the...

A dramatic showdown is underway in the State of Washington, pitting Boeing against its largest labor union, the International Association of Machinists (IAM). If the union, voting Wednesday, rejects a proposed contract that includes lower health care benefits, Boeing is threatening to move production of its next generation airliner, the 777X, out of the Puget Sound region, to such locations as Charleston, SC (where it is assembling the new 787) or Texas, right-to-work states where the union's demands would hold no sway. The Washington State Legislature takes Boeing's threats very seriously, indeed. Boeing has long complained about the tax burden...

(Reuters) - The Washington state Senate on Saturday passed a measure to extend nearly $9 billion in tax breaks for Boeing through 2040 in an embattled effort to entice the company to locate production of its newest jet, the 777X, in the Seattle area. Lawmakers acknowledged, however, that their efforts would likely be undermined if the airplane maker's key machinists union votes down a proposed labor contract due to go to before the membership on Wednesday.

Machinists are expressing anger at the terms offered by Boeing to win the 777X work for Everett. Boeing said in a statement that the company is ready to "pursue other options" outside Washington.In a dramatic end to a meeting with hundreds of disgruntled Machinists at the Seattle union headquarters Thursday night, District 751 President Tom Wroblewski tore up a copy of Boeing’s contract proposal and said he would try to have it withdrawn. “I know this is a piece of crap,” Wroblewski said about the proposed new eight-year agreement that Boeing says will determine whether the forthcoming 777X jet is...

Boeing and Kongsberg Defense Systems of Norway recently completed a successful check of the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) on an F/A-18F Super Hornet at the Boeing St. Louis facility to ensure the weapons fit on the aircraft's external pylons. ST. LOUIS, Nov. 6, 2013 -- Boeing and Kongsberg Defense Systems of Norway recently completed a successful check of the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) on an F/A-18F Super Hornet at the Boeing St. Louis facility to ensure the weapons fit on the aircraft’s external pylons. Picture: Boeing The JSM, which is being designed and built by Kongsberg, is a long-range, low-observable...

THE first pilot instructor for the RAAF's new Growler electronic warfare aircraft has started training in the United States. Flight Lieutenant Sean Rutledge is stationed with the US Pacific Fleet Electronic Attack Wing at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state. He will be qualified to instruct other RAAF aircrew on the operation of 12 EA-18G Growlers Australia is buying from the US. During the next three years, six RAAF crews, each comprising a pilot and electronic warfare officer, will learn to fly Growlers at the US Navy's Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Patuxent River, Maryland. Wing Commander...

On the list of Pentagon weapons programs gone awry, the Navy's A-12 Avenger attack jet stands out. The radar-evading, carrier-based McDonnell Douglas plane was 18 months behind schedule and about $1.4 billion over cost when then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney canceled the $57 billion program back in 1991. The case over the triangular-shaped A-12 Avenger, which was dubbed the "Flying Dorito," has been in legal limbo ever since, going all the way to the Supreme Court in 2011 before being referred back to a lower court. Now, after 22 years, a settlement is on the horizon. Senator Susan Collins told the...

U.S. Fighter Aircraft Pricing Themselves Out of the Export Market By Sandra I. Erwin At a time when U.S. arms manufacturers are turning to overseas markets to help make up for declining sales to Pentagon, analysts warn that the high prices of American fighter jets could place U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage. The arrival of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter gives manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. an opportunity to sell the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft. But its price tag, in excess of $100 million per airplane, will make it unattainable for most non-U.S. buyers, according to new analysis by...