More trouble for Boeing

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Boeing’s Downfall - Before the McDonnell Douglas Merger

Boeing today seems to be going from crisis to crisis, with its reputation in tatters and the press and much of the public reacting any time something happens to a Boeing aircraft – even if one of the pilots just SNEEZES wrongly.But HOW or WHY did we get here? How did Boeing, a gem of a company, that was once the Gold Standard of aviation engineering, end up with their name getting dragged through the mud this way? And more specifically, what role did Boeing’s merger with McDonnell Douglas have, in making this happen?Today I’m starting a series on… Boeing’s fall from grace. And in this episode, I will set the stage by taking a look at the history of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, to show how different these giants were, as they headed to a “wedding” that many now wish had never happened.
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Boeing Vs McDonnell Douglas: Who Absorbed Whom? Until the mid-1990s, Boeing was the aviation engineering company that all other aviation companies measured themselves against.But, when McDonnell Douglas and Boeing merged in 1997, an official described the pairing of the management of the two companies like “hunter killer assassins meeting Boy Scouts”!Why was that? How did Boeing’s exemplary focus on engineering just fizzle away, when the McDonnell Douglas execs moved in?
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west point said:
2 deaths of whistle blowers will really bring out the conspiracy crowd.
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To be fair the 737 Max fiasco does seem to meet the definition of a conspiracy and when your negligence has slaughtered 346 what's another two?

jiml said:
...and reduce the chances of more whistle blowers. ;)
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It's amazing that anyone volunteers to be a whistleblower having seen how those who came before them were treated after they came forward. I remember watching a PBS documentary where a regulatory investigator explained that she warns every prospective whistleblower that they are about to forfeit their future employment and that nobody will be bringing it back including the government. Which is probably why they mostly come forward after retirement.
 
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These problems that occur on Boeing planes are being much overblown.
Metal fatigue happens often unexpectedly and business. Wheel bearings have failed just like NS at Palestine causing tire to fail or fall off. Even door have come off although the 2 DC-10s were cargo doors. Wing Slides have come off before. Nose gears have failed several times.

What as far as we know is the lack of proper inspection and building. The MCAS is still an ongoing problem although lessened by more training is in my B-737 pilot friends opinion not liked very much.

But it is not just Boeing but all businesses changing their management structures. Business major , accountants especially bean counters, lawyers, all who do not know the business, In manufacturing we see persons who know how to build their product and what the customer needs for reliability being forced out of the decision makers roles. Examples are CAF, Alstom, Boeing, GE United technologies, etc. OH!! Of course, Amtrak.

BTW the rocket failure is not Boeing's but the Atlas V.
 
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west point said:
These problems that occur on Boeing planes are being much overblown.
Metal fatigue happens often unexpectedly and business. Wheel bearings have failed just like NS at Palestine causing tire to fail or fall off. Even door have come off although the 2 DC-10s were cargo doors. Wing Slides have come off before. Nose gears have failed several times.

What as far as we know is the lack of proper inspection and building. The MCAS is still an ongoing problem although lessened by more training is in my B-737 pilot friends opinion not liked very much.

But it is not just Boeing but all businesses changing their management structures. Business major , accountants especially bean counters, lawyers, all who do not know the business, In manufacturing we see persons who know how to build their product and what the customer needs for reliability being forced out of the decision makers roles. Examples are CAF, Alstom, Boeing, GE United technologies, etc. OH!! Of course, Amtrak.

BTW the rocket failure is not Boeing's but the Atlas V.
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I feel like the families of the 347 people that died don’t think Boeings problems are overblown. I bet they wish that the agencies that were supposed to regulate them actually did their jobs before lives were lost. Let’s also remember that Boeing is having quality control problems with numerous product lines, the 737 Max, the 787, the 777, the KC-46, the VC-25, the Starliner etc. It seems the thing that bonds all the separate departments together is a complete lack of quality control and accountability. Boeing should probably be broken up at this point but unfortunately our country, regardless of political party, loves corporate welfare.
 
west point said:
BTW the rocket failure is not Boeing's but the Atlas V.
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As long as we conveniently ignore the fact that the seven year delay in the first manned flight from the original schedule, and an additional pumping of over $200 million into the program to keep it afloat, is because of design flaws and poor quality control in the construction of the Starliner spacecraft, which is entirely on Boeing.

I agree with @blueman271 and actually happen to believe that an inordinate amount of effort has been spent in trying to sweep as much of Boeing's well established faults under the carpet as possible and the faults are so numerous that high powered attempt to hide things including mysteriously disappearing whistle blowers are all failing.

IIRC, the latest valve problem is in the Centaur second stage. The configuration used for Starliner launch is apparently the only ones that use a two engine Centaur. As problems go, a failed valve discovered on ground is not the most earthshaking problem and is usually easily fized, except when it is in a Starliner, which in the past caused the indefinite postponement of a Starliner flight.

Anyhow, to refresh ones memory of the checkered history of the Starliner program a good source is the Wikipedia article on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Starliner
 
Dueling whistleblowers on the 787 gap issue, one says it's not that bad: https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...-after-a-787-critique-defends-troubled-plane/ Having dueling whistleblowers is not ideal, nor is it great the Defense Department is heavily reliant on a mega company run by quarterly stock price.

About ordinary practical manufacturing and repair issues getting the sky-is-falling treatment, there was some hue and cry recently about using dish soap to lubricate a fit. Boeing/Spirit or somewhere else, I don't recall. But it's a well-known trick. Next they'll find out water is used with machine tools. Not to diminish the real management fouled up situation at Boeing.
 
JamesWhitcombRiley said:
Dueling whistleblowers on the 787 gap issue, one says it's not that bad: https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...-after-a-787-critique-defends-troubled-plane/ Having dueling whistleblowers is not ideal, nor is it great the Defense Department is heavily reliant on a mega company run by quarterly stock price.

About ordinary practical manufacturing and repair issues getting the sky-is-falling treatment, there was some hue and cry recently about using dish soap to lubricate a fit. Boeing/Spirit or somewhere else, I don't recall. But it's a well-known trick. Next they'll find out water is used with machine tools. Not to diminish the real management fouled up situation at Boeing.
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Notwithstanding all that, leaving an entire step ladder within the vertical stab by mistake is one of my favorite Boeing Bloopers.
 

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