What is wrong with Boeing?

a reply to: anzha

Russia has been obliterated by brain drain on the design end of things, and the perpetual economic malaise since the 1990s has meant that their manufacturing base is a hot mess and struggles significantly with stuff like tolerances and quality control.

And that's before we get to the fact that when it comes to anything electronics-related, they struggle to match even where we were in the late 90s.

China, OTOH, wrecks Russia on the electronics front, and ditto for the manufacturing tolerances/QC side of things. The only place where they're significantly behind the Russians is metallurgy/materials science, and it's held their engines and probably their coatings back a fair bit. That said, they're catching up fast, while the Russians have a bunch of pretty engine designs languishing as CAD files because their industrial base is too deteriorated to build any of them in anything even remotely resembling significant numbers.

www.reuters.com...

I fear Boeing ripped us off. The cost of the SLS is beyond recovery. The taxpayers really got robbed on this one. Luckily Musk and his team are building a much better alternative. I believe SLS should receive the classic Golden Fleece Award. The technology in SLS is far behind what the commercial vendors are developing. I say we finish the damn rocket, test it and just keep the design in stockpile should we ever need it. We are too far invested to dump the project.

a reply to: ServiusTull

All of these companies rip us off. Everyone sees SpaceX as this amazing company that can do no wrong, but the behind the scenes stories tell a totally different story. I've known people that have said it would be a cold day in hell before they worked there because they burn through people as fast as they can.

originally posted by: ronjer
Kind of a broad-brush and simplified view of it, but I blame the MBA culture that has taken over business models since the late 80's. Boeing should be run first by plane builders and aerospace engineers. Business analysts and accountants should be tertiary at best.

The other part is lack of pride by those doing the building. 30 years ago no Boeing worker would ever consider a job finished until everything was perfect. A wrench would have never been left inside the plane. All metal surfaces would be left clean, etc. The MBA's coming in probably contributed greatly to the workers change in attitude and it has reverberated throughout all of America. For the most part 'made in America" means nothing any longer, because the values that made our products great are no longer intact.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: ServiusTull

All of these companies rip us off. Everyone sees SpaceX as this amazing company that can do no wrong, but the behind the scenes stories tell a totally different story. I've known people that have said it would be a cold day in hell before they worked there because they burn through people as fast as they can.

So they have a highly competitive work environments like most start ups. How's that ripping us off?

If SpaceX delivers on Starship it will secure American dominance in space for the remainder of the century. At no risk for the taxpayer. What has Boeing done latley?

a reply to: mightmight

That's just one thing that I've heard. Their accounting practices are even worse from what's being said. They're cutting costs on one program and inflating costs some on others so they can juggle funds around.

Boeing is just as bad, if not worse. Hence the All these companies in my comment.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Creative accounting, really? shocking

The difference is, SpaceX is successfully pushing the envelope and has already revolutionized access to space. Without taxpayer handouts.

a reply to: mightmight

And they're not the all holy saviors that people make them out to be. You'd think they walk on water the way they're talked about.

It's always funny that when people point out creative accounting by Boeing, or any other company the reaction is to condemn them and rant about them. SpaceX does pretty much anything they want and no one even blinks.

Think anyone can away with anyone.....until something bad happens...

a reply to: mightmight

Without taxpayer handouts?