Originally Posted by
tdracer
I read Stan Sorscher's opinion piece as well - and think it was spot on (by the way, if you know him, I suspect he'd appreciate spelling his name correctly). But that change to a profit driven company that did engineering (instead of the other way around) wasn't McNearney's fault - it predated him quite a bit - falling directly at the feet of Phil Condit. Condit not only started the rot, he greatly accelerated the rot with the MacDac merger. Under McNearney, things actually got better compared to the train wreck of Condit and Stonecipher who not only caused the 787 fiasco but clearly implemented a 'shoot the messenger' approach to problem reporting.
I lived through the transition from FAA to delegated authority (morphing from a DER to an Authorized Representative - AR - in the process - all of which predated McNearney by a few years). It wasn't Boeing's idea - it was dictated by the FAA leaders in the other Washington (and was being pushed down to other airframers and engine manufactures as well). Most of the people who had to deal with the delegated authority (especially the ARs) hated it (me included).
Re stan- yep my fat finger issue again.
BTW I was at the BA meeeting held in Huntsville in 2000 because of the strike ( hopefully to avoid protests as I recall ) and at which Phil extolled the virtues of Jack welch and the GE " way " - Travelled on the redeye with several of the SPEEA Staff and a then well known local reporter named Genna
Had some interesting deaings with the Boeing brass ( after I retired of course ) re a saterical post in yahoo about Boeing laying off 110 percent of the workforce-. As to shoot the messenger- they also bayonet the stretcher bearers. And I'v gone toe to toe with Boeing law firm ( and won 3 of 4 times ) re pensions and benefits and shareholder proposals And in 2004, I was probably one of maybe one hundred to be hugged by Alan M ... story-reason not on topic here.
And also a moving issue re the DER-AR thing was the SPEEA strike.
My point is still the same - a few of the senior level grunts in the trenches most likely had to choose between certanity ( being sent to alaska to count snowflakes for two years temp duty ) by speaking up to power or the probablitly that maybe- just maybe based on past " history " of the NG, all would be OK.