Yes I see clearly that will be the reality.
In my book this failure was something out of 100 year old accident report, something you would dig up in a mouldy old "Mechanical Eng Failures of 1911"
Whatever was the cause there was a HELL of a breakdown in communications and respect between the different parts of RR. and Airbus. They spent 15 months flight testing alone.
The fact that we have only TWO main supliiers viz GE and RR does not, in my view, help the civil aerospace industry. The fact that we have TWO sets of environmental protection targets to meet does not help.
The EADS set up in my view has many other cultural/language problems to over come as you highlighted with the simple connector variance.
Unlike MIT which is very much an egalitarian our top academic facilities are distant from reality, insular and less approachable. Our military facilities in Europe have been decimated and in that process we lost many skills that so could easily prevent this accident.
I'm tired. If the shell person comes back tell him I use pure virgin olive oil in summer and mix it with a little kerosine in winter. That usually is enough to move 'em on.
