Jason27 said:
Boeing 787= outsourcing lesson from hell
Amen to that. Have to spread around the fabrication pie to all the countries that are purchasers. Second fact that cannot be denied is the personal impact in past years of Alan Mulally. He was probably the best manager of complex aerospace systems since Warner Von Braun. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering and, from September 1992, as vice-president and general manager. The 777 as you know came in close to on time, and had a pretty good record. Alan is now CEO of Ford Motor Company, and I say proudly, the only american car company that did not need, nor take any bailout money.
The dreamliner has been a bust on schedule, I think it is 3 or 4 years late. Now problems with fuel leaks and major systems. Boeing has clearly lost something with Alan leaving.
I have never been an advocate of composite systems for high reliability, civilian systems. I guess we will see with the dreamliner as the years unfold. Our constant quest for efficiency is going to be our Achilles heel.