Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Do they intend to sell their airliner business? Then a move right in front of the DoD would make sense.
Reading between the lines, it could very well be, Boing did give up on "building commercial airplanes". The B777 was an excellent one, the B787 is technically "not bad", though way over budget and it shows, Boing has no comprehension how to build commercial airplanes (IE technology is not important).
The board/management instigated idea to "spread" the development risk, by outsourcing nearly all development and production, worked out even worse than the over-budget/time of the B777 (add to that the consequence of limited internal knowledge of the core technologies). The board/management decision to give the B737 another MAX life worked out dramatically, a $20B+ costing event never seen in Boing history and probably US airline experience. And the board/management decision to extend the B777 life into an -X (in itself not that bad), which in turn exploded on approval tests and started disclosing significant cheating (attempts ?) on certification.
Boing got rid of the experienced developers/engineers, and I did not see a significant amount of new hiring announcements of suitably experienced people to do this kind of state-of-the-art development/engineering work (correct me, when I am wrong). Which more or less implies, there is no development for an 321XLR competitor, no NMA, no A350 competitor.
And the most important aspect is that all public Boing communications is showing a focus on the finances and seemingly neglecting the core engineering stuff (which in the end is the reason why a customer wants to buy -advanced technology- Boing airplanes and consequential the finances exist). KLM biting the bullet and migrating to Airbus should be a clear indication, IE no new developments in that area (KLM especially wanted to increase fuel efficiency, the green-look).
Or so to say, there is a lack of mental connection between Boing board/management and the core reason why customers would be prepared to select Boing aircrafts. Not good.