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Boeing
The Boeing Company is on the verge of completing all the tasks in an FAA-approved certification plan that will enable its 787 Dreamliner to resume normal flight operations. The plane was grounded in January following two overheating incidents with lithium-ion batteries used mainly to support ground
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Date:
4/4/2013
Some of the media coverage concerning battery problems on Boeing's 787 Dreamliners makes it sound like months may pass before the planes can fly again. Not so. It may be a long time (if ever) before regulators identify root causes for battery-pack overheating on two Japanese Dreamliners, but the
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Date:
3/1/2013
When you build complex, cutting-edge products that transform global commerce and culture, you expect to occasionally encounter setbacks. So the Boeing Company has a formula for dealing with problems like the controversy surrounding batteries on its latest jetliner. Basically, you cooperate with
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Date:
2/1/2013
There have been many questions in the media this week about what recent problems on Boeing's 787 Dreamliner mean for the company's business outlook. The answer is that they basically mean nothing. America's biggest exporter is headed for $100 billion in annual revenues circa 2015, and a lot of
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Date:
1/18/2013
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that all human beings have an urge to self-destruction that competes with their instinct to survive and prosper. The notion of an innate death-wish has fallen out of favor, but every once in a while you encounter people whose behavior is so
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Date:
12/20/2012
Boeing is on track for record results, with ValueLine predicting the company will generate nearly $100 billion in sales by mid-decade and earnings per share in excess of $7.00 (it's around $4.75 today). Several features help explain why the company is doing so well. First, Chairman & CEO Jim McNerney
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Date:
9/25/2012
Two giants bestride the world of commercial aircraft: America's Boeing and Europe's Airbus. They are roughly equal in terms of orders for their aircraft and planes delivered over the last ten years. Boeing dominates the twin aisle or widebody market with its 747, 767, 777 and the new 787 Dreamliner.
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Date:
9/21/2012
Last week's disclosure that BAE Systems and EADS are in merger discussions has predictably sparked concerns among shareholders and stakeholders. Their fears can't be allayed until the two parties agree on all the details, but it is already clear why the companies think a combination makes sense.
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Date:
9/17/2012
The defense industry has become the backbone of what's left of manufacturing in the Northeast. But don't take my word for it, just look out the window of your car as you drive from D.C. to Cape Cod. From the sprawling Northrop Grumman electronics plant near Baltimore to the Boeing helicopter factory
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Date:
8/15/2012
There was a time when the Air Force wasn't just co-equal with the other military services in the Department of Defense, but first among equals. That time is now long gone. After a smashing success in the 1999 Balkan air war -- it defeated Serbia without assistance from ground forces -- the Air
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Date:
8/6/2012
The U.S. defense industry used to be regarded as a bastion of white male executives. It still is seen that way in some quarters, but the reality is that women are rapidly ascending into top jobs across the defense sector. Since the new year began, General Dynamics has announced its next Chairman
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Date:
7/30/2012
At the Farnborough international airshow last week, the four European countries with a big stake in Airbus -- Britain, France, Germany and Spain -- held a press conference to discuss why the subsidies they give to the aerospace giant are permissible under World Trade Organization rules. The statement
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Date:
7/16/2012
Monday's announcement by Airbus parent EADS that it will set up commercial-transport production in Alabama presents Boeing with a major problem. Although the two rivals have been competing globally for decades, this is the first time the European company has proposed to establish a manufacturing
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Date:
7/3/2012
Yesterday, Jim McNerney, the CEO of Boeing, fired a devastating broadside at the Obama Administration. In a public forum, he observed that ". . . . very few people in the Administration share life experiences with those of us who are in the private sector." In fairness to the White House, McNerney
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Date:
5/9/2012
Delta Air Lines has launched a deceptive campaign against the federal government's Export-Import Bank alleging a variety of offenses detrimental to U.S. airlines. The gist of its complaint is that Ex-Im, as it is called, helps finance exports of Boeing widebody commercial transports that might
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Date:
4/23/2012
An improbable debate has broken out in Congress over whether the Export-Import Bank should be reauthorized, and if so then on what terms. The bank is a federal agency set up during the Depression to provide loans and loan guarantees for U.S. exports when private-sector financing isn't available,
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Date:
4/18/2012
What does it tell you about a company's culture when its representatives repeatedly mislead the public about a matter material to its future business prospects? Does it indicate they are a worthy partner or supplier? Does it suggest they will bargain in good faith in disputes where deception and
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Date:
3/23/2012
The Kansas congressional delegation is angry that Boeing has decided to close its aircraft plant in Wichita, and it should be. Throughout a decade-long struggle to secure the Air Force's next-generation tanker contract, the delegation vigorously supported Boeing's bid because the company said it
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Date:
1/10/2012
Pentagon policymakers were smart to wait two weeks before disclosing the program changes that will accompany the administration's new national security strategy. The political system needs some time to assimilate the emerging strategic framework before it hears what revised military priorities
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Date:
1/6/2012
Last week, Airbus rival Boeing won a long-sought victory against the European plane maker company when the U.S. Trade Representative disclosed plans to impose huge trade penalties to compensate for the damage done by illegal subsidies. The World Trade Organization has ruled that Airbus deprived
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Date:
12/12/2011
There was a time when the Pentagon's idea of smart acquisition practices meant things like multiyear contracts and avoiding excessive testing. Not now. The current approach to promoting efficiency in weapons purchases is mainly about shifting risk to industry and cutting the performance of next-generation
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Date:
11/2/2011
When Northrop Grumman Chairman Wes Bush addressed a meeting of government officials and contractors at the company's new headquarters in Virginia last week, he began by thanking local officials for their help in moving to the location. Bush disclosed the decision to move the headquarters from Los
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Date:
10/11/2011
Unmanned aircraft have become the signature weapon of America's global war on terrorists. Just last week, a CIA drone strike killed al Qaeda's second in command. But unmanned aircraft have limitations. First, they are usually defenseless against attack. Second, they are fragile. Third, their
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Date:
8/29/2011
My critical commentary on commercial launch provider SpaceX appearing at Forbes.com last week attracted 11,000 readers and a handful of outraged responses from company supporters. I have followed up with a second commentary this week focusing on how SpaceX's track record compares with that of more
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Date:
5/31/2011
With Osama bin Laden now gone to his reward -- probably not the place where 72 virgins await him -- defense contractors must confront the possibility of a major downturn in military demand over the coming years. The Obama Administration has already canceled four of the top twelve weapons programs
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Date:
5/3/2011
The world's preeminent trade body ruled on March 31 that a European complaint against the United States alleging massive commercial-transport subsidies was largely unfounded. The 2005 complaint had claimed U.S. company Boeing received about $24 billion in prohibited or actionable subsidies from
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Date:
3/31/2011
European aerospace giant EADS did American taxpayers and warfighters a big favor today by deciding not to protest its recent loss of the Air Force's tanker competition. As EADS North America Chairman Ralph D. Crosby put it in a press release, "We will not take any action that could further delay
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Date:
3/4/2011
Industry insiders say that Boeing clinched the hard-fought battle for the Air Force's next-generation tanker last week by offering a rock-bottom price while rival EADS failed to bid as aggressively. Boeing had an intrinsic pricing advantage because it offered a smaller plane that cost much less
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Date:
3/1/2011
Within minutes after the Air Force announced that Boeing had won the tanker competition yesterday, Politico put a story on their web-site suggesting that the main reason many people thought Boeing would lose was my frequent predictions of an EADS victory. The story may have over-estimated my
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Date:
2/25/2011
The defense department has done a masterful job of keeping its tanker deliberations under wraps, so nobody should assume they know what will be announced today at 5:00. EADS expects to win and Boeing does not, but their expectations were confounded the last time such an award was made, and the same
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Date:
2/24/2011
The Air Force will announce the winner of the $35 billion KC-X tanker contract on Thursday, February 24 after financial markets close. Judging from the frequency with which Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter has been talking up the notion of a "globalized" defense market recently, European
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Date:
2/22/2011
I argued in a posting here last Friday that recent overseas surprises are likely to shift the vector of demand for defense goods. My reasoning was that unrest in the Middle East will make it harder to sell weapons there, but China's military buildup will force policymakers in Washington to pour
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Date:
2/8/2011
The World Trade Organization today released a final ruling on commercial transport subsidies received by Boeing. The ruling will remain confidential until translated into variety of languages, so only the parties to the case brought by European governments have seen it. However, the ruling probably
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Date:
1/31/2011
On the day that President Barack Obama made U.S. economic competitiveness the lead theme in his State of the Union speech, European aircraft maker Airbus issued a series of misleading assertions about top U.S. exporter Boeing that illustrated a key reason why it is so hard for America to compete.
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Date:
1/26/2011
The Air Force is likely to announce the winner of its tanker competition in March -- the same timeframe in which the World Trade Organization (WTO) will release two different reports casting Airbus business practices in a negative light. The first WTO report, which has already been completed, will
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Date:
1/20/2011
The big story for the defense industry in the January 6 budget cuts proposed by defense secretary Robert Gates was what didn't happen: after reducing future weapons outlays by $330 billion in previous rounds of budget cutting, this time Gates cut almost nothing. The headline story was termination
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Date:
1/7/2011
The juiciest rumor to come out of the Thomson Reuters aerospace and defense summit this week was speculation that Boeing may be considering a bid for some or all of Northrop Grumman. The head of Boeing's defense business, Dennis Muilenburg, declined to rule out the possibility of a large-scale
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Date:
9/10/2010
As domestic demand for military goods begins to soften, the U.S. defense industry is seeking to sustain profits by selling more of its products overseas. Although the United States already generates about two-thirds of all cross-border arms sales around the world, there appears to be considerable
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Date:
7/30/2010
News that Army leaders were impressed by the most recent demonstration of the battlefield network that Boeing developed for future armored forces is the latest indication that the aerospace behemoth's defense operations may be stabilizing after years of erosion. Boeing mounted a big push to grow
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Date:
7/26/2010
The Boeing Company disclosed today that it intends to be a bidder in the competition to build a next-generation presidential helicopter. It said it had purchased the rights to build a domestic version of the AgustaWestland EH101 helicopter -- the same rotorcraft that Lockheed Martin offered in
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Date:
6/7/2010
The United States has lost an average of over a thousand manufacturing jobs every day since the new millennium began. Most of those losses resulted not from productivity gains or other positive trends, but rather from America's decline as a manufacturing power. During the last 30 years, the portion
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Date:
5/20/2010
Remember two months ago when Northrop Grumman announced it was pulling out of a partnership with Franco-German aerospace giant EADS to supply the Air Force's next aerial-refueling tanker? The reason Northrop executives gave for withdrawing was that the government's request for proposals favored
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Date:
5/17/2010
There has been a lot of loose talk recently about the possibility that Airbus parent EADS might bid in the latest round of tanker competition even without former partner Northrop Grumman in order to establish a bigger "footprint" in the U.S. military market or make a favorable impression on Pentagon
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Date:
4/12/2010
The World Trade Organization's confidential final report on European commercial-aircraft subsidies sides with the United States in finding that much of the aid Airbus has received is banned under current trade rules. The report thus confirms a preliminary finding in September that low-cost or no-cost
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Date:
3/23/2010
The European media are in an uproar today following Northrop Grumman's decision to pull out of the Air Force's tanker competition. Much of the commentary accepts at face value the charge made by Northrop and European aerospace conglomerate EADS that the solicitation favored Boeing, and then jumps
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Date:
3/10/2010
Northrop Grumman's leaders hated pulling out of the Air Force's tanker competition on Monday. Having spent four years and $200 million positioning their team to be a credible contender, company leaders desperately wanted to fight and win. But they simply couldn't find a solution to the government's
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Date:
3/9/2010
The Boeing Company released details of its proposed next-generation tanker on Thursday that underscored just how tough it will be for Northrop Grumman to prevail in the next round of competition. Every feature of the Boeing plane seems calculated to maximize its competitive advantage under the
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Date:
3/4/2010
After four years and $200 million in expenses, Northrop Grumman may have reached a dead end in its bid to build the Air Force's future aerial-refueling tanker. That can't come as a total surprise to newly-minted CEO Wes Bush, who doubted the wisdom of pursuing the tanker contract from day one.
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Date:
2/26/2010
Even before the defense department unveiled its final strategy for acquiring a new aerial-refueling tanker yesterday, Northrop Grumman was deep into preparations for announcing that it would not bid. Pentagon officials had sent Northrop and its rival, Boeing, clear signals that the final acquisition
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Date:
2/25/2010