Considering the National Security implications of the aerospace industry and the dual-use technology applicable to both military and commercial aviation, that should be a common sense restriction to begin with. Frankly, I didn't care much for Boeing's merger with McDonnel-Douglass or the North American Aviation division of Rockwell, but Klintoon was in power and Boeing was his conduit for transferring our technology to the Chicoms. I'd have preferred seeing a North American / McDonnell Douglas merger independent of Boeing. With domestic competition, both companies could focus on technological improvement and new market development rather than simply outsourcing our National Security to the cheapest supplier. Lockheed Martin dropped out of commercial aviation sometime back, even though they're still active in defense contracts. I suppose they could sometime reenter the commercial market, but they seem better positioned to apply their expertise to the blossoming Maglev HSGT sector. Cool! Lockheed has a keen eye for developing markets! I like that kind of vision and corporate flexibility!
You have Airbus out there, willing to deal with anyone with a dollar,
Yeah, the Frenchies are prostitutes.
They were even supplying Saddam Hussein with banned technology.
The heck with them. They have inferior technology anyway.
The reason that the American Aerospace industry is in such bad shape is because of a lack of competition both here and from other nations. North American, McDonnell Douglas, General Dynamics and others are gone because of the very high costs of staying in business, which is directly tied to both government regulation and Union work rules.
Lockheed Martin is responsible for some of the worst waste fraud and abuse of government contracts that it is a wonder they are still around.
Maglev will never take off in this country until contractors can build and do research without having to work around environmentalists, unions and government restrictions raising the costs beyond affordability.