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...

First, they tried an F-104. “Not enough wing or thrust,” recalls Jack Petry, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. When NASA engineers were launching rockets at Florida’s Cape Canaveral in the 1960s, they needed pilots to fly close enough to film the missiles as they accelerated through Mach 1 at 35,000 feet. Petry was one of the chosen. And the preferred chase airplane was the McDonnell F-4 Phantom. “Those two J79 engines made all the difference,” says Petry. After a Mach 1.2 dive synched to the launch countdown, he “walked the [rocket’s] contrail” up to the intercept, tweaking closing speed...

Delta is set to fly the last scheduled U.S. commercial McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flight on Monday, January 6. Appropriately tagged as Delta flight 2014, the final flight will depart Minneapolis/St. Paul for Atlanta just before sunset, marking the end to a 48 year career of flying scheduled commercial flights in the United States.

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...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

"'La force motrice' of Reusable Launcher Development: The Rise and Fall of the SDIO's SSTO Program, From the X-Rocket to the Delta Clipper" Introduction. NASA commissioned me to document the development of the X-33 in March of 1997. The X-33 is an advanced technology demonstrator vehicle intended to flight test technologies deemed critical for eventually building a reusable single-stage-to-orbit rocket transport. Those technologies include a metallic thermal protection system, an aerospike engine, and composite cryogenic hydrogen tanks. As part of the history project, I chose to write about the SDIO's SSTO Program as a predecessor to the X-33, even though...

Hole found in Alaska plane 05:30 PM PST on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 KING5.com Investigators: Problems spike after ramp work outsourced SEATTLE – An Alaska Airlines plane was forced to return to Seattle Monday after a gash in the plane’s fuselage caused the aircraft to lose pressurization. The incident began when a ramp worker hit the plane with a baggage cart or baggage belt machine, according to National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Jim Struhsaker. The accident created a crease in the skin of the plane which opened up into a hole when the pressure on the plane changed at 26,000...

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 16 -- An airliner carrying 160 passengers and crew members crashed into a mountain in northern Venezuela early today after reporting engine trouble, killing all aboard, aviation authorities said. The plane, an MD-82 made by McDonnell Douglas and operated by West Caribbean Airways of Colombia, was carrying French vacationers to Martinique from Panama when the pilots reported engine problems to Venezuelan air-traffic controllers at 3:07 a.m., the authorities in Venezuela said. Ten minutes later, the controllers lost radio contact. The plane crashed in the Sierra de Perija mountain range just inside Venezuela's rugged northwestern border with...

Airbus, an EADS joint company with headquarters in Toulouse, France, joined the commercial aircraft market in 1972. Back then, said T. Allan McArtor, chair of Airbus North America Holdings, Inc., nobody thought the company could compete. Airbus Chair T. Allan McArtor says sales have gone from 18 percent of new aircraft orders in 1995 to 54 percent in 2004. "People snickered, and some outright laughed, but looking back, it's easy to understand why," McArtor said. "This upstart was taking on business icons—Boeing, and in those days, other formidable competitors like Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed." As recently as 1995, Airbus had...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- McDonnell Douglas Corp., a Boeing Co. unit, has received a $609.3 million contract to supply the Air Force with kits to modify bombs with sophisticated guidance systems, the Defense Department announced late Wednesday. The contract runs through February 2007 and involves 30,072 GPS satellite-based guidance kits that can be added to traditional unguided bombs to make them much more accurate. In December, Boeing (BA: news, chart, profile) said that it had supplied 100,000 of the kits to the United States. Production increased since Sept. 11, 2001, Boeing has said, for use in the military campaigns in...

Harry Stonecipher is a former Colerain Township resident with long-standing connections in the Cincinnati business community. Many who worked with him here have described him as a direct, no-nonsense leader who can dissect problems quickly. A son of a Tennessee coal miner, Stonecipher started working for General Motors Corp.'s aircraft-engine unit as a lab technician in 1955. After graduating from college in 1960, he joined GE Aircraft Engines in 1960 and was responsible for the development of the CF6-50 engine that still powers Airbus A300 and Boeing 747 airliners. He held a series of management positions in GE's commercial engine...

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 - Russia's X-31 anti-ship missile is a devastating weapon. Capable of traveling at 2,000 mph, the 15-foot missile skims over the ocean until it slams into its target and explodes. It also can be modified to seek out and destroy radar systems, such as those used to guide the U.S. military's Patriot missiles, defense analysts say. For years, the U.S. military has sought to develop an effective defense against the X-31. In 1999, Boeing Co. announced in St. Louis that it had won an $18.8 million contract from the Navy to acquire 34 of the Russian missiles...

LONG BEACH — The Boeing Co. is expected to announce today that it will end production of the 717 the last commercial jetliner built in California and eliminate at least 750 jobs. The aerospace giant will close the Long Beach plant that manufactures the 717, which traces its lineage to the McDonnell-Douglas Co., once orders for 18 of the planes are filled, according to an internal memo obtained by the Press-Telegram. Boeing executives began informing workers of the program's termination at about 2 p.m. Thursday. The last 717 will likely roll off the moving assembly line in mid-2006, Pat McKenna,...

AIRCRAFT-SPACE SYSTEMS-MISSILES Important! Important! Please fill out and mail this card within 10 days of purchase.Thank you for purchasing a McDonnell Douglas military aircraft. In order to protect your new investment, please take a few moments to fill out the warranty registration card below. Answering the survey questions is not required, but the information will help us to develop new products that best meet your needs and desires. 1. _Mr. _Mrs. _Ms. _Miss _Lt. _Gen. _Comrade _Classified _Other First Name: Initial: Last Name: Password: Code Name: Latitude-Longitude-Altitude: 2. Which model aircraft did you purchase? _F-14 Tomcat _F-15 Eagle _F-16...

Beginning this weekend, aircraft buffs will be able to stroll up to and touch about half dozen historic aircraft at the city's newest public facility, the Heritage Airpark. The airpark, at 25th Street East and Avenue P, is a memorial to the aircraft designed, built and tested at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 since the facility was established in 1951. The airpark is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays beginning Jan. 17. A formal ceremony marking the opening of the facility will be held in March, noted Mayor Jim Ledford. Meanwhile, volunteers will continue to prepare...

Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has completed one of the most thorough aircraft accident investigations ever undertaken with a final briefing on the downing of Swissair Flight 111. Over the last four years, the TSB's activities have led to the removal of one type of flammable acoustic insulation from most transport aircraft and to dozens of safety recommendations dealing with electrical system certification, pilot training and aircraft component fire testing. In the end, the TSB determined the Swissair crew was dealing with confusing cues and a hidden fire that propagated fast enough to overwhelm their generally appropriate decision-making. Nevertheless, it...

An important U.S. high-tech manufacturer is shutting down its American operations, laying off hundreds of workers and moving sophisticated equipment now being used to make critical parts for smart bombs to the People's Republic of China (PRC), Insight has learned. Indianapolis-based Magnequench Inc. has not yet publically announced the closing of its Valparaiso, Ind., factory, but Insight has confirmed that the company will shut down this year and relocate at least some of its high-tech machine tools to Tianjin, China. Word of the shutdown comes as the company is producing critical parts for the U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM)...