My gut feeling is the unlaying root cause lays a decade back. The 9-11 trauma, with or against us, Airbus taking over #1spot, A380, tanker fraud

A leap forward was required and everyone rallied behind the Boeing flag to show them, using world class innovation and american excellence, restoring the greatest.

The irony is that corporations are usually better off long-term with good government regulation. The banking industry is an example. Boeing is another example. If Boeing was better regulated over the past fifteen years by the FAA, then Boeing would be better off today.

But now Boeing is in a mess. Who knows, maybe it will do OK with the revamped 777 (which according to Reuters information is coming soon).

“Trouble makers”, “communists’ or whatever invective came to mind at the time.

Now here we are .. everything breaking down.

Look her are some simple projections of Australian airline trends:

(1) There will be zero Qantas international flights in 5 years.
(2) There will be only Jetstar domestic flights .. until they go bankrupt (5-10 years tops).

Qantas will only be known in aviation history books.

Boeing will pull (be pushed?)out of commercial aviation. Just like McDonnell Douglas (which are now its current management) and Lockheed to feed on the unlimited trough of US military contracts .. until the US goes broke (just like the USSR did before it).

Someday an Indian/Chinese/etc company will buy the rights to these names (like MG and so on) and Boeing will live on … maybe.

Aviation is far more visible than the “looter takers” who were doing complex deals in derivatives on the 58th floor in Wall Street and the FAA, despite any shortcomings is still far more vigilant in its governance and oversight than was the US Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan. In today’s world of instant information and social media there is probably more public pressure on aviation authorities to get it right than ever before.

With the benefit of hindsight the FAA should not have certified the 787 with its Li-Ion batteries in their current form. But neither should the Comet have been certified with its deadly design flaws and neither the DC10 – yet ground breaking technologies such as fly by wire were introduced without issues. New technology will always present challenges in an industry that by its very nature has to push the envelope.
Deployment of a new battery technology is relatively mild when compared with the other new technology in the 787 and perhaps for that reason it did not receive the attention from the FAA that it deserved.

The significant embarrassment caused to Boeing and the FAA over the current situation is likely to ensure checks are put in place to prevent a recurrence. I don’t see it as a failure of public administration nor is it analogous to the lack of regulation in the banking sector that led to the GFC. Any form of regulation is a balancing act and from time to time it may require adjustment.

The main aim of corporations is to make profits for shareholders. As such, they essentially behave like psychopaths, which is why they need to be regulated for the public good.

In Boeing’s case, engineers are kept beneath multiple levels of non-engineering management. The 747-8 is now taking longer to develop than the original 747, and the 787 is nothing short of a complete and utter disaster. That management has flown the once-great company into the ground.