Nobody is confusing group and divisional HQ. We are talking about moving the group HQ back to Seattle where it has been. Boeing Commercial Airplanes HQ never left King County. They moved from East Marginal Way South next to Boeing Field down to Longacres next to Seattle-Tacoma International. They t...
Jump to postIt made sense for Boeing's Corporate HQ to be in Seattle when most everything was located in the Puget Sound area, which was the case through the mid-1990s. But by the time they moved to Chicago in 2001, Boeing had absorbed Rockwell and McD and Hughes and had operations across the country and there ...
Jump to postWhy will frames head to San Antonio? Are the seat production issues on the 787 so severe that new frames have to be sent to storage? Boeing has a pretty large facility in San Antonio so it would be a good place to complete customer configuration and change incorporation work to free up space at Eve...
Jump to postThere were tremendous problems and disconnects with 787. How much of that is related to who was CEO is uncertain considering the many, many layers below that also hold responsibility for honesty and transparency. It was well-reported at the time that the C-suite only wanted to hear "all was we...
Jump to postFirstly, I wonder which leverage Boeing has to force Airbus to agree on a price anywhere greater the 1 dollar for Belfast, or any other part of Spirit that would go to Airbus. After all, it's Boeing which has a problem to solve and Airbus isn't in the charity business. Airbus needs those parts, so ...
Jump to postArguing Boeing’s problems are the result of “bean counters” or some other profit motive is intellectually dishonest and lazy. It ignores the complexity of aerospace and the multiple internal and external forces that put Boeing into this situation. Prior to the GFC of 2008, Boeing's share price had ...
Jump to postI don’t think you have an accurate view of the situation or are fairly attributing blame. Well I admit I am not sitting the Board Room or the C suite, but it is not like there has not been a tremendous amount of reporting about the situation via the media and government inquiries. Yes, suppliers an...
Jump to postHow can you say Calhoun and the current board are driving a profits-first culture when there hasn’t been much of a profit since the MAX was grounded? Whether there was an appropriate focus on safety and quality is valid, but it’s hard to argue the current behavior is profit above all. And why has B...
Jump to postI am not a manufacturing expert, so the question is: does something special need to be done to build the -300ER fuselages (windows, doors, etc.) or is it simple? The answer might be there. The window belt would be unique as well as the interior components. Not sure if the suppliers are even making ...
Jump to postOk. So how likely is it that any inspection would have involved pulling the interior trim from around the plugs? As without that step they probably would have completely missed the plug issue. Well, if one of the restrictions has been „leave the row from the plug empty“ they already had a glue what...
Jump to postSound like you want to fix things by painting over bad rivets, like they did on problematic Alaska 737. That has been what Boeing's senior Executive Management and Board of Directors have been doing since the turn of the century and some feel that they are doing so again by offering Calhoun as a &q...
Jump to postI guess what posters are trying to say about moving back to Seattle, it would reconnect the suits with those building the products. Well it would for Boeing Commercial. It would not do so for Defense, Space and Global Services, none of whom have their HQ or major facilities in the Puget Sound area....
Jump to postAirbus is not in the aerospace business for shareholder profit, it is for technology and high skill workforce. We need to think the same way, jobs and technology. About time we stopped with this tired old falsehood. Airbus is definitely about shareholder profit - 75% of its shares are privately hel...
Jump to postName one state where more employees work. There isn't. But that does not mean Boeing's corporate HQ has to be in Washington because the plurality of workers are there. One of the stated reasons Boeing moved their corporate HQ to Chicago is it provided better connectivity to their military operation...
Jump to postOh dear. Those sort of situations are vulnerable to another dynamic: is selling everything off scrapper-style a better deal, than keeping it a going concern? Spirit Aerosystems acquired other companies to make it a more viable going concern as an independent company that had to pay their own way. T...
Jump to postThere are suggestions in the press that Boeing is looking to cut Spirit's ties with Airbus, if it takes over Spirit. How would that work? Spirit is a major supplier to Airbus and It would take Airbus a long time to establish replacement production lines elsewhere. Boeing is unlikely interested in t...
Jump to postwilliam wrote:Larry Culp with GE Engines
william wrote:Pat Shanahan with Spirit AeroSystems
It has been reported that once Boeing and SNECMA have a fix designed, they need to test it to ensure it does not impact engine operations (since a materials change could affect inlet dynamics and such which could then impact internal engine operation). This seems to be a fair bit of the extension of...
Jump to postBoeing brought in Admiral Donald earlier this year as Special Advisor, he had been chair of HII for several years. It would be excellent news if he gets deeply involved in fixing the safety & QA culture at Boeing. He headed up the Naval Nuclear Propulsion program for 8 years, that is an Assista...
Jump to postThey had to offer up some sacrificial lambs to placate the media, shareholders and customers. As others have stated, they really need to bring in execs from outside the company (but within the industry) to truly change the culture. This. And as to why Calhoun is not vacating his position immediatel...
Jump to postSince it was involved in a major incident would the frame require a heavy check to make sure nothing got tweaked? If not would it be wise for AS to send it thru one since Boeing's records on this frame see to be suspect at best. The plug separated cleanly from the airframe and hit nothing as it did...
Jump to postSo back to my point: At what stage do they "bite the bullet" and cancel the variant so that they are focused on a new product? There is no point. If Boeing cancel the MAX10, they cede the entire 200-plus seat market to Airbus through the 2030s. And with every airline having huge fleets of...
Jump to postI was under the impression that much of the communication about the door was handled outside of Boeing's formal maintenance system because much of the work involved Spirit Aerosystems contractors who do not have access to said system. This has been suggested to be one of the reasons the bolts were n...
Jump to postI fully expect Boeing and 767 freighter customers have been talking since the ICAO directive was announced and orders and option slots were adjusted accordingly. And it is not like 767 freighter operators have no options come January 2028, as P2F conversions are not subject to the ICAO directive so ...
Jump to postAviation Week polled a shedload of financial analysts, every one of them who said Boeing buying (back) Spirit would be a financial mistake that would offer little upside, so my guess is Boeing will not be a bidder.
Jump to postThis article was linked in the original Reuters piece, I haven't seen it discussed on Anet but points to significant additional delays on all Boeing programs FAA gives Boeing 90 days to develop plan to address quality issues None of this sounds good for timelines on any Boeing product On the flip s...
Jump to postUntil the bloody things get into the hands of the airlines and they figure out what it is good at, we really don't know how the 777X program will play out over it's life. A significant number of airlines bought the 777-300ER for its capacity and lift, not its range and the 777-9 will continue to be ...
Jump to postThank you, everyone, for clarifying how the extra fuel will be carried.
(And I noticed I used the "ACT" acronym for the A321XLR instead of "RCT" when referring to the Rear Centre Tank.)
The six month delay in delivery of PS A350s to QF is attributed to the certification of the aft fuel tank which takes up some hold space. I was able to better refine my searching and found that Jon Ostrower mentioned in 2022 that Airbus was adding "an additional 20,000 liter center tank" ...
Jump to postAs I recall at the time of the A350-900ULR's launch, the fuel tanks on the plane were unchanged from those on a "non-ULR" A350-900 and the extra usable capacity was due to modifications to the fuel management software to allow filling the tanks closer to their pre-existing volume. At the t...
Jump to postAirbus has noted that the center tank on the A350-1000's used for Project Sunrise will have the same 20,000 liter usable capacity as the A350-900ULR which will allow the frame to match the 9700nm range of the A350-900ULR (though in addition to the higher usable fuel load, the low-density cabin layou...
Jump to postMay I ask for a reminder. When does the current iteration of 767 stop being ICAO-compliant, as far as new-builds are concerned? I tend to remember 2027 or 2028, but I'm not sure. The rules go into effect on 1 January 2028. https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ICCT-ICAO_policy-update...
Jump to postNice unbiased assumptions there... Could easily be Boeing has still not met requirements and FAA is, for a change, insisting that they do instead of allowing Boeing to use the magic waiver wand. True, but then it seems odd for Boeing to increase the flight cadence of the test fleet in preparation f...
Jump to postIs this just a matter of waiting some more weeks or is there any roadblock preventing TIA? Boeing has been increasing company flight-test cadence in preparation for TIA, so I presume the hold-up is on the FAA's end. Perhaps the FAA is still finishing their paperwork review before they are ready to ...
Jump to postAfter the delivery of L/N 1760, N710GT, MSC AIR CARGO (WF384) at 03/04 January 2024 no 777F aircraft has been delivered ! Are 777F deliveries also paused/delayed until production audits have been completed by the FAA ? I am not aware of any production audits being undertaken for 777 "classic&q...
Jump to postIn a memo sent to employees Wednesday, Stan Deal, chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, announced that Ed Clark, who had been appointed to the job in 2021, would be succeeded by Katie Ringgold. The memo also announced other leadership changes, including the appointment of a new ...
Jump to postOne of the cornerstones of the general improvement in manufacturing across so many disciplines in so many areas was the adoption of the Japanese management practice of ‘Fix the problem, not the blame.’ To go back to the old American practice of shifting responsibility and firing up the “blamethrower...
Jump to postConsidering how many 777-300ER frames they have accepted, I am surprised EK did not have embedded quality control personnel at the FAL, but I guess they were satisfied with the quality of the frames they were receiving.
Jump to postBoeing's immediate problem, and it's problem for some time now, is just to build what they are building now, but build them with far, far, fewer faults. Their constant failures to acheive this, suggest the malaise runs deep in their culture, and their systems. I would not be surprised if the issue ...
Jump to postAnd I hope that [redacted] does not work in a for profit business which understands accountability which he does not. There is a difference in having accountability to educate the person who made a mistake and accountability to punish the person who made a mistake. The former keeps trained staff an...
Jump to postNo it does not solve the root problem at Boeing but it is still a very important part of the correction process Immediately firing any staff who make a mistake will only exacerbate the root problem at Boeing. As others have noted, this will nurture a culture of "cover my bum" and to hide ...
Jump to postSorry if this was asked upthread, what’s the actual purpose of the plug? Do you get more seating since it’s not an emergency exit? Or is it to save weight related to it not being a functional door and slide? Or both? I’ve always been curious about that. It is both. The plug is lighter than an exit ...
Jump to postHave any of the MAX8 frames gone through their D checks yet? The first ones were delivered in 2017 so it's right around when they would start getting them. I wonder if / when they do the D checks will they find similar loose bolts throughout the aircraft like they did when inspecting the MAX9s? MAX...
Jump to postNoshow wrote:Why wouldn't they pick A320neos instead?
I'm not asking for the Max 8 and 9 to be grounded. I'm only advocating that the anti-ice exemption should not be based on the logic of no incidents of this type on the 8 and 9. But there is no difference in the EAI across the MAX family. So if the MAX8 and MAX9 are exempted via AD, why not the MAX7...
Jump to postQuestion - do we know yet what / if any rework would need to be done to early builds? Or is the statement above a cautionary statement in case there is heavy rework as part of the certification process Boeing has said nothing and we will probably not know anything until TIA is approved and the FAA ...
Jump to postBoeing has withdrawn the request for 737 Max 7 engine anti-ice exemption. Either the FAA privately told them to pound sand or Boeing felt it was not worth the PR hit to continue to pursue it. Still believe if the issue is one that the FAA feels is not serious enough to allow the MAX8 and MAX9 to op...
Jump to postI hope this is not true, otherwise the rot is so deep it will be almost impossible to fix… If you changed the company's culture once, you can change it again. It has to start with the C-Suite and then extend down to lower tiers of management and the line workers. An effective way to drive it is to ...
Jump to postI don’t think any had leadership positions at McDonnell Douglas. You could argue the Boeing culture was changed with the merger, but anyone in the company at senior levels has moved into management post merger. But if those people who were junior or middle managers at McD and had adopted McD's cult...
Jump to postThe bigger question is if anything else of the structure got damaged when the plug fell out. Checking that might take some time, even if nothing is found. If it hit the airframe, I would think it would have left a pretty visible dent so a close visual inspection should be enough. Based on how it lo...
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