Boeing lands China sale; tied with a factory in China.

Boeing has sealed a deal with the Chinese government to equip some state owned airlines with upwards of 300 aircraft. Initial reports are for 240 737s and ~50+ of an unannounced wide body variant. Seemingly a good deal until you throw in that it includes a factory to build aircraft.

[url=https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/chinese-state-company-commits-to-300-boeing-orders-417096]

[url=http://www.vox.com/2015/9/24/9389767/boeing-china-deal]

My issues with this deal are as follows:

1. Boeing is going to add to China's industrial ability to build aircraft. To what degree is yet to be seen but there are some manufacturing techniques that Boeing uses that the Chinese haven't mastered as of now.

2. These processes could strengthen their military's ability to build quality aircraft quickly and with adequate quality control.

3. Avionics and engines. Two places the Chinese lag behind the west and could give them a leg up and increase their parity with Allied aircraft. I know engines on a civil jet and military jet differ greatly but again tooling and quality are where they lag behind.

4. American jobs. Why not just flat out sell the airplanes as they should be: made in the USA. The Chinese don't don't do us any favors: make as much as you can off them whenever you can.


Perhaps I'm just paranoid about the rising communist power of China but I see no reason to give them anymore technological know how. Also there is a lot to be said because I believe Airbus is also planning on manufacturing a320 in mainland China and it seems both companies are ultimately getting played and maybe even played against each other.

Stay tuned for the next Chinese factory explosion then!

a reply to: Caughtlurking

You have a lot of valid concerns but......

This was inevitable with Airbus opening a plant there. Boeing risked being shut out of the market when the government essentially own the airlines and dictates policy. Same reason Apple , google et al play nice with censorship that the ChiComs insist on.

Boeing is more of an airframe integrator these days with the supply chain being global. Parts of the 737 are made in Italy, Japan, France, The UK etc. so the impact of actual assembly may be limited in terms of US jobs. Plus the ability to produce the 737 in the US may top out at 52 planes a month given the lack of skilled man power etc. so an foreign assembly lime may be needed to deal with the backlog anyway.

a reply to: Caughtlurking

If Boeing does this, how long will it takes before our military hardware is made in China?

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: Caughtlurking

If Boeing does this, how long will it takes before our military hardware is made in China?

The two have no connection.

a reply to: Caughtlurking

It's a completion center, they're not actually building them there.

The new facility in China will be operated jointly by Boeing and Comac, the maker of the C919 narrowbody. Workers there will install interiors, paint liveries and deliver 737 aircraft to Chinese customers.

www.flightglobal.com...

Boeing doesn't build the engines anyway so even if they did build the aircraft there they wouldn't learn anything about engines. They already have access to Western engines as it is.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ah I searched around and couldn't find anything that specific. The initial report I saw on the local news(who would of thought) made it sound like the entire aircraft would be built overseas.

a reply to: Caughtlurking

It's just like the new Airbus plant in Alabama. The plugs are built by the usual suppliers, only they're sent to, in this case, China where they're put together. So all they're doing is riveting prefabricated pieces together, hanging the engines, putting the cabin in, and painting them.

Chinese supplied parts still end up in the military, it would seem. Big money, big corruption.

A year-long investigation conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee found more than one million suspected counterfeit parts made their way into the Department of Defense's supply chain and were bound for use by "critical" military systems, according to the 70-plus-page document released Monday. In addition to Navy helicopters and surveillance planes, the parts were slated to be put into the Air Force's newest cargo planes.

"The failure of a single electronic part can leave a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine vulnerable at the worst possible time," the report says. "Unfortunately, a flood of counterfeit electronic parts has made it a lot harder to prevent that from happening."

Chinese companies were identified as the "primary source" of the counterfeit goods and the Chinese government was criticized for its alleged disinterest in cracking down on counterfeiting there. The report said that Chinese companies take discarded electronic parts from all over the world, remove any identifying marks, wash and refurbish them, and then resell them as brand-new – a practice that poses a "significant risk" to the performance of U.S. military systems.

But the committee also pointed a finger at the Pentagon and U.S.-based defense contractors that rely on "hundreds of unvetted independent distributors."

Link

a reply to: roadgravel

You get what you pay for and the DoD most always buys the cheapest. Even m16a4s get made by the cheapest bidder..