Lockheed, Douglas, McDonnell-Douglas, Wright, Curtiss, Fairchild, Convair (General Dynamics), Martin, Consolidated – these are the names of companies that used to build commercial aircraft in the United States. Of those that still exist, none of them build commercial planes any more. Instead they only build military aircraft. We are down to our last commercial aircraft company in the U.S. – Boeing, and Boeing is struggling to build and fly its most recent design, the 787 Dreamliner. Recently, Boeing announced yet another major delay in producing the 787 due to problems with the wing roots. It could be a year or more before the “Dreamliner” flies.
Recently, at the Paris Air Show, it looked for a while that Boeing wasn’t going to get any orders for its commercial planes, such as the 737 and 747, let alone the 787. Finally, an aircraft leasing company from Japan, MC Aviation Partners, ordered two 737s. Meanwhile the European Airbus Consortium had taken a total of 57 orders for its planes. And Brazilian Regional Jet builder Embraer took orders for over 190 aircraft. Incredibly, Boeing says they have no interest in the regional jet business. This is despite the fact that about half of all flights in the U.S. these days are on regional jets. Most of these regional jets are made either by Brazil’s Embraer Company or Canada’s Bombardier Company. So, if Boeing is ignoring the massive regional jet market, and at the same time they are having enormous problems getting the Dreamliner off the ground, and the European Airbus is taking lots more orders than they are, what does that say about Boeing’s future? Will they go the way of Lockheed, and the others?
Probably. In fact they already have much more than a foot in the door. It’s more like both legs in the door. That door being the Pentagon’s of course. Besides the C-17 Globemaster, the F-15 Strike Eagle, the F-22 Raptor, and a lot more – actually lots, lots more – Boeing is doing very well with military orders, thank you very much. Perhaps Boeing is on the verge of transitioning to the happy hunting ground of government contracting that all of its competitors discovered long ago. There certainly seems to be a lot of money to be made there, and there aren’t all those pesky issues of passenger comfort and safety, noise reduction, fuel efficiency, multiple competitors from other countries, and so many other benefits that go along with government contracting.
One can only wonder. Will the Nightmare be Boeing’s Commercial Aircraft’s swan song? Will American industry finally cede the commercial aircraft industry to foreign countries? Why not? We already outsource just about everything else, don’t we? Just wait until China and India get into the act. In fact, without the government military dole we might not have an American aviation industry right now. With the government’s odd (to say the least) way of making buying decisions we could go on building B-1 bombers, F-22 Raptors, and F-35 joint strike fighters and so much more forever.
It’s the worldwide commercial airplane business, with all its cutthroat competition, that clearly makes no commercial sense these days for the American airplane industry. American industry just can’t compete. It’s like everything else in American manufacturing: how did this American Dream turn into America’s Nightmare? The Nightmare doesn’t just belong to Boeing; it belongs to all of us.
