From 1960 to 1964, my father worked as an engineer for Boeing. That job ended when Boeing laid off so many of its workers, that it made American history. Of course, my Dad was not the politically correct, “DEI” type that so many corporations want working for them these days. Fast-forward to this year: Boeing has problems with its aircraft, and sends two astronauts to the International Space Station on a spaceship that cannot return to earth safely. Now, to Boeing’s humiliation, its rival SpaceX is going to rescue the astronauts.
This has me wondering, would Boeing be in so much trouble if they had kept their workers, sixty years ago?
During WWII Boeing designed, bug-fixed, and built over 3,000 B29 bombers, and during the 54 year run of the 747 (it sez here) built about of those 1500 jumbos.
Since 1964 Boeing's gone all the way through the 747 life cycle -- from passenger jumbo to freight-hauler (plus I think some military iterations) and probably peaked. Almost 4000 people have been killed in 747 failures worldwide during that time, but literally millions have flown on them.
Lockheed and Boeing were the two finalists in the US-funded SST project; Boeing's final pitch was so over-the-top that the design couldn't have been built, but between its claimed future capability (and probably back alley graft transactions) the Boeing design got the nod. All the bidders made some money on the process, AFAIK, but the Lockheed design was probably the one that should have been chosen.
Boeing absorbed McDonnell-Douglas, its main airliner competitor. The other day someone around here said Boeing mgmt wound up disproportionately run by M-D pencilnecks. There was also a discussion the other day about the Darlene Druyon military procurement corruption scandal, which further disadvantaged Lockheed.
The pattern isn't merely the current DEI fad, it's mostly about creeping incompetence, the pursuit of de facto monopoly power, and naked corruption.
This one was amusing though:
really off the trail sidebar:
I have a copy of this upstairs, it’s about as thick as a briefcase, and I’ve never read the entire thing, but chapters I’ve picked off over the years have been fascinating:
Raise Heaven and Earth: The Story of Martin Marietta People and Their Pioneering Achievements
by William B. Harwood | Jan 1, 1993