Originally Posted by
remi
......I haven't read much about the rationale for the merger in a couple decades. It seems like McAir and Boeing fused well on some programs e.g. Longbow and Chinook, possibly because manufacturing stayed put and so did most of the personnel. But Boeing's new(ish) military programs have been disastrous......
I don't understand why this particular hybrid cross had to be created though. The principle of hybrid vigor has been completely inverted into hybrid weakness. You thought you were getting the Borg "best of all worlds" and oh hey that went the other way.
I always thought it was "The Last Supper"......
Short version, if the link can't be read: Clinton's Defense Dept. invited the heads of the aerospace defense contractors to a dinner in 1993, where it was
strongly suggested that the end of the Cold War ("Peace Dividend") would require a leaner industry (and fewer CEO salaries). Resulting rapidly in the combinations of Northrop & Grumman, Boeing & Rockwell (and then MD), and Lockheed & Martin.
Combined with the fact that the B/MD merger
was partly a stock swap - leaving
McDonnell's Stonecipher and John McDonnell as the largest shareholders in the combine, even though technically Boeing was buying McDonnell. MD's bean-counters outplayed Boeing's engineers - not for the last time.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-c3c087cdebc6/