Free Republic

…Yeah, things aren’t looking good for the plane manufacturer. And we must ask — where did it all go so wrong for Boeing? Well, it probably all began in the summer of 1997. Boeing wanted to establish dominance and show the world who was boss in the airline industry. So it decided to acquire another plane manufacturer called McDonnell Douglas. It was a massive merger worth $14 billion. Now after the merger, the new entity retained the Boeing name. It was expected since it was Boeing that splashed the cash. But the problem was that the culture of McDonnell Douglas...

The U.S. Air Force is getting serious about developing a so-called adaptive engine for its current and future fighter jets and is now putting the money where its mouth is. Five giants in the industry were recently awarded contracts worth a whopping $4.9 billion. General Electric, Pratt &Whitney, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman were awarded contracts worth around $975 million each for the prototype phase of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion Program. Until now, only GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney were developing engines as part of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) with the goal of eventually producing...

General Electric Suspends Vaccine Requirement After Supreme Court RulingGeneral Electric, one of America’s largest employers, announced on Friday that it has suspended its coronavirus vaccine or test requirement for its employees after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for large businesses this week. “The maker of jet engines, wind turbines and medical scanners confirmed the decision Friday via email,” Bloomberg News reported. “GE is the first major company to announce a halt after the court’s decision Thursday to block the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s push to boost Covid-19 vaccinations.”

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to block President Biden’s vaccine-or-testing rule for large companies, General Electric said it would suspend the implementation of the mandate for its employees. The Boston-based maker of jet engines, wind turbines, and medical scanners confirmed the decision Friday via e-mail. GE is the first major company to announce a halt after the court’s decision to block the centerpiece of Biden’s push to boost COVID-19 vaccinations. GE holds a number of government contracts, so its 56,000 employees in the US originally fell under a separate vaccination mandate for federal contractors. The company paused that requirement in...

General Electric, the storied American manufacturer that struggled under its own weight after growing to become a sprawling conglomerate, will divide itself into three public companies focused on aviation, healthcare and energy. It is the culmination of an arduous, yearslong reshaping of a symbol of American manufacturing might that could signal the end of conglomerates as a whole. “It’s over now," said Nick Heymann of William Blair, who has followed GE for years. "In a digital economy, there’s no real room for it.” The company has already rid itself of the products most Americans know including its appliances and last...

General Electric, the storied American manufacturer that struggled under its own weight after growing to become a sprawling conglomerate, will divide itself into three public companies focused on aviation, health care and energy. The company’s announcement Tuesday is the culmination of an arduous, yearslong reshaping of a symbol of American manufacturing might that could signal the end of conglomerates as a whole.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) approval of the GE9X follows thousands of hours of testing, and clears the engine for life aboard the world’s largest twin-engine aircraft, the Boeing 777X. Before that maiden flight even took place, GE Aviation said it had hundreds of orders on the books from a range of customers in the aviation space, but its primary focus has been the forthcoming family of wide-body planes from Boeing. Developed to power these next-generation 777X passenger jets The GE9X engine itself is as wide as a Boeing 737 fuselage, and is 10 percent more efficient than the GE90...

Union workers in upstate New York are pleading with President Trump to help prevent layoffs by requiring the Tennessee Valley Authority to build six massive new electricity generators in the US instead of moving some overseas. The TVA is a federally owned electricity supplier in Tennessee and neighboring states. On Monday, Trump fired two TVA board chairmen and demanded the TVA president’s ouster for laying off Americans while outsourcing tech jobs to a company in India. Workers at the historic General Electric campus in Schenectady — where Thomas Edison once worked — hope Trump will now help them. The factory...

Jack Welch was a railroad conductor’s son who rose to chairman and CEO of General Electric.During the 20 years he led the conglomerate, its market value grew from $12 billion to $410 billion.Fortune magazine once called him “manager of the century,” but he also was known as “Neutron Jack” for slashing tens of thousands of jobs.  Jack Welch, a railroad conductor’s son who became chairman and CEO of General Electric and led it for two decades, growing its market value from $12 billion to $410 billion, has died. He was 84.His death was announced Monday by his wife, Suzy. With...

The wall will be begun and nearly completed by the end of 2020.Legal challenges to the construction of the wall will fail.President Trump's popularity will grow the more the wall is completed.Impeachment will either never make it to the Senate due to Pelousy's fascistic tactics, or it will arrive and be a) shredded item by item or b) called up for a vote and rejected on a bipartisan basis.President Trump's popularity will grow the longer the hoaxpeachment totters on.In Venezuela, there will be a civil war between factions of the military, one of which will initially support Maduro, then...

Incredible footage has revealed the moment that the world's biggest jet engine took to the skies for the first time, ahead of its planned maiden commercial flight in 2020. The huge GE9X powerplant, which is as wide and tall as the fuselage of a Boeing 737, is being built for the latest version of the firm's long-haul 777, the 777X 'megaplane'. General Electric has now begun flight trials of the prototype, after delays caused by technical problems stopped tests originally planned for late last year.

An “avian incident” sparked a fire at one of California’s biggest solar farms, affecting 1,200 acres and knocking out 84% of the California Valley Solar Ranch’s generating capacity. The June 5 incident didn’t damage solar panels at the 250-megawatt power plant, but distribution poles and cables need to be replaced, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday from owner Clearway Energy Inc. The company didn’t say exactly how the blaze was ignited. “We are pleased that in the aftermath of the fire at California Valley Solar Ranch, our team and first responders were able to ensure the safety of the surrounding...

eneral Electric Co said on Friday it plans to demolish a large power plant it owns in California this year after only one-third of its useful life because the plant is no longer economically viable in a state where wind and solar supply a growing share of inexpensive electricity.

The perception that only elite schools produce elite leaders needs to die. The No. 1 company in last year’s Fortune 500 was Walmart Inc., with $500 billion in revenue. That would make its chief executive, Douglas McMillon, a pretty important and powerful executive, don’t you think? Can you guess where he went to college? The University of Arkansas. He has an MBA, too. From the University of Tulsa. Second on the list was Exxon Mobil Corp. Its CEO, Darren Woods, went to Texas A&M. Third was Berkshire Hathaway Inc., run by the man many consider the greatest investor who ever...

Pretty much any subject, stupid humor is fine, general stupidity not so much, and please no snarking, that's directed at you snarky SOBs. Someone used to do a thread like this every year, but, alas, he got banned. The good news (for me, anyway) is I just noticed that a really big butthole (not the same FReeper) got banned for NeverTrumping back in 2016, and I hadn't missed the ******* at all. That got me thinking, because the predictions thread guy also got booted for NeverTrumpism, if memory serves (not sure, I think I'd already been kicked out for something...

Boeing is set to debut its biggest plane ever next month, and the 777X has finally been paired with the gargantuan GE9X engine that will propel its flight. The plane is currently housed in Boeing's Everett, Washington, assembly plant, where pictures show it looming over workers as they prepare it for its maiden flight. The GE9X engine is the biggest turbine engine in the world. At roughly the size of an entire Boeing 737's fuselage, it was subjected to test flights last March when a single turbine was hitched to a 747 testbed. The engine includes a composite fan more...

One thing I’ve seen over and over again in my career as a journalist and investor is the well-documented phenomenon of Wall Street analyst “pile-ons.”You know, where a stock is headed unsustainably higher and higher — and analysts outdo each other raising their price targets.It happens in the other direction too, where analysts come up with all sorts of reasons to justify why a company’s stock will head lower and lower.That’s certainly the case with General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) these days.A shareholder would seemingly have to be stupid, crazy or “very, very brave” (as Vanity Fair’s finance writer...

New York University student senators passed a resolution Thursday in support of the university divesting from three companies associated with the Israeli government and instituting a “socially responsible” investment policy. Israeli-affiliated companies named in the resolution included Caterpillar, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin. Only NYU students were allowed to attend the senate meeting, each senator's vote remained anonymous, and those who wished to address the room were limited to two minutes when speaking. The meeting, which was expected to last for about two hours, was ultimately extended until it spanned nearly three-and-a-half hours.

Stocks rose sharply on Monday as investors cheered news of Canada joining a trade deal with the United States and Mexico. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 264 points as American Express and Boeing outperformed. The S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent, led by 1 percent jumps in materials and industrials. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7 percent as Amazon and Apple both climbed more than 1 percent. "The biggest risk factor [in the market] is a trade war and we've dialed that down a bit," said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. Bailey noted, however, the market may...

The Boston-based company discovered an "oxidation issue" that could cause distress on blade components of the HA gas turbine. GE launched the HA turbine in 2016 and has received orders for more than 80 turbines, more than half of which have already shipped to customers in the U.S., Europe and Asia. "Obviously, this was a frustrating development, for us, as well as for our customers," GE Power CEO Russell Stokes wrote in a LinkedIn post. "But we have identified a fix and have been working proactively with HA operators to address impacted turbines." "A few weeks ago, there was an...