aerolimani wrote:stephanwintner wrote:I can't imagine it, excepting niche products like the L100.
I think Lockheed's L1011 experience and Douglas' slow decline show a need to have several products at different market segments. Clearly, until they'd developed 3 or 4 products, Lockheed wouldn't have that. That's a heck of a long term project.
Absent that, momentum and size to develop new products is really hard to find (e.g. C-series). And while LM's government business could provide that heft, I think it would be very hard to justify investing in a commercial business sector if that sector, on its own, is underperforming financially.
For 15 years, Airbus had only the A300/310, before they launched the A320.
Perfect example - Airbus spent 15 years building aircraft and infrastructure on the back of existing enterprises (Aerospatiale, MBB, CASA, who else? not sure of the history of Filton...), with clear political support for their governments (I'm not sure how much financial support too ). And of course they eventually became a profitable enterprise. Eventually.
I'm not saying LM couldn't do it - but would they choose to invest their money in that, or in something more likely to return a profit sooner ? Like, the next DoD contract?