Still Can't Make Planes

It looks like Boeing has been using the wrong alloy of titanium for its 787 Dreamliner.

The FAA wants to mandate  inspections:

The FAA has proposed mandating Boeing-recommended inspections of about 100 787-9s and -10s for fuselage fittings that may be constructed from the wrong grade of titanium.

A draft rule published May 14 would require inspections of affected aircraft within 48 months. An alert requirements bulletin issued in February lists 97 787-9s and -10s as possibly having the noncompliant parts. All affected aircraft were manufactured from early 2016 through mid-2017.

According to the draft rule, certain pressure deck area fittings may have been installed that are made from an “incorrect” grade 1 or 2 titanium. The parts should be made from Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V, which is stronger and has higher damage tolerance.

………

Affected parts include pressure deck floor beam brackets and fittings at certain body stations. The pressure deck is located where the wings attach to the fuselage and separates the pressurized cabin and unpressurized wheel well.

Obviously, this is an almost decade old error, but I am a bit dubious of the clams of a renewed focus on safety that have been made over the past few years.

Boeing needs to fire its entire C-Suite.

Mental Incapacity, My Ass

Against the recommendations, Joe Biden rejected the merger of Nippon and US Steel.

I agree with the decision, but even if I didn't, this is completely on brand for Biden to reject the importunities of the so-called experts in the field.

It should be noted that these experts, who have given us NAFTA, CAFTA, WIPO, the decline of the American working and middle class, investor–state dispute settlement boards, and almost the Trans Pacific Partnership.

These deals have rarely served the general populace, and have more often served the interests of big donors.

The experts who advocate for these deals frequently set up lucrative consultancies to profit from their administration, so they make money, and businesses whose profits come from rent seeking through these deals, like Pharm and Media, make money, but the rest of us lose.

President Joe Biden’s blocking of a Japanese company’s bid to purchase U.S. Steel overrode the advice of numerous top aides, ending a long-running debate that had divided the president’s inner circle, according to seven officials familiar with the matter.

The decision to nix Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion takeover bid helps cement Biden’s image as a staunch defender of U.S. unions but leaves the fate of thousands of workers unclear and tees up a potentially protracted legal battle over whether politics influenced a security review that is supposed to be left to experts.

Biden had long said he opposed the purchase of U.S. Steel, arguing the iconic company needed to stay in domestic hands, a position that many observers saw as political pragmatism to shore up the union vote in an election year. But with the election over and President-elect Donald Trump set to take office, some aides thought there might be a slim chance to persuade Biden to relent in his last days in office, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

At a White House meeting convened by Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients on Thursday evening, some of these aides, such as national security adviser Jake Sullivan, noted that one option was a conditional block of the acquisition. That would have allowed Nippon Steel to advance more proposals to minimize potential national security risks, effectively pushing the matter to the next administration, according to three officials.

Over the last several months, more than a half-dozen senior administration officials — including Sullivan deputy Jonathan Finer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, his deputy Kurt Campbell, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Jared Bernstein and top Commerce officials — argued against or expressed reservations about the position Biden ultimately took, said officials familiar with the deliberations.

………

But for some members of the president’s domestic economic team and for his political advisers in particular, blocking the deal gave the White House a rare opportunity to protect U.S. jobs, deliver a clear victory to the nation’s labor unions and burnish Biden’s legacy. Skeptics of the deal, which was strongly opposed by United Steelworkers President David McCall, thought Nippon had an uneven track record of protecting workers. They also felt that Nippon Steel had a year to advance a meaningful mitigation plan but repeatedly failed to do so, according to one U.S. official familiar with their views. 

Also, any mitigation plan would have been ignored.

When push came to shove, in a world where there is already a glut of steel, Nippon Steel would have cut US jobs, and not Japanese ones.

I was around in 1993 when NAFTA was being debated, and Clinton insisted that there would be side deals to address the concerns of critics.  

Surprise, these side deals were never made, because harming ordinary workers was a feature, not a bug.

As to whether or not this is an actual security risk, who cares.

Good on Joe.

It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, after last week's horrible number, we see a bounce.  As to the whether of not this week's numbers are a dead cat bounce, or whether last weeks numbers were an outlier.

Initial claims fell from 260,000 to 241,000, still not a good number, and continuing claims rose from 1.861 million 1.867 million.

The numbers are better than forecast, but still are weak.

Also, US industrial production fell, but that appears to be an artifact of the Boeing strike and the hurricanes, at least in part, while retail sales rose.

Damned if I know what is going on here.

Doesn't Care About Making Planes

I have been saying for some time that Boeing can no longer make planes.

Based on the revelations from previously undiscovered communications between Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines, it's now clear that they just did not care.

In late 2018, Ethiopian Airlines’ chief pilot sent an urgent message to Boeing, the manufacturer of the 737 Max airliner.

Barely a month earlier, a 737 Max operated by Lion Air of Indonesia had plunged into the sea, killing everyone on board. The cause appeared to be a problem with the plane’s flight control system.

The Ethiopian carrier also flew the 737 Max, and the chief pilot wanted more information from Boeing about the emergency procedures to follow if the same problem that doomed the Lion Air flight should recur. At the time, Boeing was providing detailed briefings to pilots in the United States who were asking the same types of questions about how to respond.

But Boeing chose not to answer the Ethiopian pilot’s questions beyond referring him to a public document it had already issued after the Lion Air crash. Boeing said in its response that it was prohibited from giving additional information because it was providing technical support to Indonesian authorities investigating that crash.

………

Three months after the request by Ethiopian Airlines, one of its 737 Max’s nose-dived into the ground after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, killing all 157 people on board. The main cause was found to be the same flawed flight control system responsible for the Lion Air flight crash, a failure that presented the Ethiopian Airlines pilots with the very same kinds of life-or-death decisions about how to respond that the chief pilot had asked about months earlier.

Or maybe they just don't care about Black pilots:

………

After the Lion Air crash, Boeing executives sought out U.S. pilots to brief them on topics that were not discussed with the Ethiopian pilots, including long-term strategies for improving flight safety, a recording of the briefing shows.

………

The company’s representatives highlighted efforts to address and clarify what they called misunderstandings related to MCAS. They pushed for training that would extend beyond routine checklists, focusing instead on equipping pilots with a thorough understanding of system behaviors and potential failures.

………

Despite the constraints Boeing described in the response to the Ethiopian chief pilot, Boeing officials discussed numerous details of the Lion Air crash.

………

The Ethiopian report, released in December 2022, found that if Boeing had provided more information to the carrier’s pilots about how to respond in the event of a software malfunction, they might have been able to regain control of the aircraft.

“The investigation found the questions raised by the airline to be safety critical, and if Boeing had answered the questions raised by the training department either directly or indirectly,” the report said, the outcome might have been different.

The Ethiopian investigators also had access to the emails between the chief pilot and Boeing and included them in their report. But Boeing’s unwillingness to provide the airline with more detailed guidance went largely unnoticed at the time.

………

The emails — which were not made available to congressional investigators in the United States and only came to the attention of some families of those killed in the crash last year — are now part of an effort by the families to block the plea deal.

The families argue that the agreement does not do enough to hold Boeing and its executives responsible for the crashes or to address what they see as deep-rooted problems in Boeing culture and operations that are leaving air travelers at risk.

There are not many problems that one can arrest one's way out of, but this is one of them.

Frog march every executive in the authority over the MCAS debacle out of their offices in handcuffs.\

That will make the useless MBA types think twice about f%$#ing the company to get this year's stock options.

 

Not a Surprise

Attempting to outflank right-to-repair legislation, John Deere made promises to ease repair of their tractors and other agricultural equipment.

They lied.

This is not a surprise.  Extracting maximum money to the detriment of their customers is a core business strategy for Deere:

US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has sent a letter to John May, CEO of agricultural equipment maker Deere & Company, questioning whether John Deere is living up to the promises it made to support people's right to repair.

And if it's not fulfilling those promises, it may be failing in its obligations under America's Clean Air Act, she added.

In January 2023, following years of legal challenges from farmers wanting to simply fix their own farm equipment outside authorized dealerships, John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

The agreement [PDF] calls for the manufacturing giant to provide farmers and independent repair shops with the tools, software, and documentation necessary to fix broken Deere-made agricultural machines, such as tractors and harvesters. In exchange, the AFBF agreed "to refrain from introducing, promoting, or supporting federal or state 'Right to Repair' legislation" that goes beyond what's promised in the MOU.

Essentially, Deere promised to play nice and help people fix their machines, by providing the tools and support needed, and the federation would back off from pushing for tough laws enshrining the right to repair.

But according to Senator Warren's missive [PDF], dated Wednesday, John Deere has not lived up to those commitments, and the MOU looks like a gambit to sabotage strong right-to-repair legislation, which is being adopted in various states and has the support of the Biden administration. 

John Deere has been promising to play nice for some time, and they never keep their promises.

Stop negotiating, and fire up the lawsuits, lobbying for right to repair laws, and institute administrative actions to make their business plan untenable.

Trusting the company is a losing proposition.

Still Can't Make Spacecraft

Boeing again, and we have a data point which goes a long way to explain why its Starliner has left 2 astronauts stuck on the International Space Station until February.

In a classic, "I see what your problem is," moment, we now know that workers at Boeing's New Orleans facility are inadequately trained and inexperienced. 

To be fair, how could they overpay executives or engage in massive stock buybacks if they had properly trained personnel?

An undertrained and inexperienced workforce at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans is a key reason for a "degraded state" of quality control on the Artemis project that's set to send astronauts to the Moon and then Mars in coming decades, according to the space agency's internal watchdog.

In a scathing report issued Thursday, NASA's Office of Inspector General cited rocket maker Boeing, which employs more than 1,000 people at Michoud, for dozens of problems on its Space Launch System rockets that are being assembled there.

An upgraded version of the SLS rocket is more than seven years behind schedule and $1 billion over budget, and federal monitors found 71 problems on the Michoud-based project ranging from minor to potentially serious.

To be fair, the Starliner is not made at the Michoud facility, but the refusal to invest in people or equipment to get the job done is systemic.

Still Cannot Build Planes

The Front Fell OffBoeing has had to halt certification testing for the B777-9 because, the engines might fall off.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Boeing says it has halted certification flight testing of the 777-9 following the failure of a thrust link mounting component attached to one of the two GE Aerospace GE9X engines powering a test aircraft.

The discovery was made during post-flight inspections of the third test aircraft, WH003, following its return to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, from a 5 hr. 31 min. certification test flight over the Pacific. Boeing says “during scheduled maintenance, we identified a component that did not perform as designed. Our team is replacing the part and capturing any learnings from the component and will resume flight testing when ready.”

The failure of the component, which was first reported by The Air Current, comes just as Boeing was accelerating into the first phase of 777-9 type inspection authorization (TIA), FAA-required testing for certification. Formal TIA tests began July 12 after a delay of almost three years and represent the last major milestone before anticipated FAA approval and initial deliveries—still currently scheduled for late 2025.

There are two fail-safe thrust links on each engine for redundancy and are designed to transfer vertical and lateral mechanical stresses between the engine and the aircraft. The Boeing-designed thrust links attach to the fan frame and carry mechanical loads—as well as engine torque about the engine axis and thrust—to the aft engine mount at the rear.

Company sources confirm the accuracy of reports that one of the links was severed, and that subsequent inspections on the other two active test aircraft, WH001 and WH002, have revealed cracks. Both of these aircraft are currently in lay-up undergoing scheduled maintenance at Boeing sites in Everett and Boeing Field, Seattle, respectively.

This is not normal for an aviation firm.

The suits have been eating their seed corn at Boeing ever since McDonnell took it over with Boeing's money.

It looks like there is nothing left here but executive stock options.

Boeing F%$#ed Up Again

This is not a safety issue per se, but rather a sales weasel releasing embargoed data to the press about the door blowing off the 737 without notifying the NTSB.

This is safety investigation 101, and as a result, the NTSB has rescinded Boeing's access to the investigation data as a result:

The National Transportation Safety Board late Wednesday offered a sharp rebuke of Boeing after learning the company held a media event on June 25 with around four dozen U.S. and international journalists inside its Renton, Washington factory, which included brief comments about Alaska Airlines 1282.

Boeing is a party to the NTSB’s investigation of the Jan. 5 accident, which occurred when a plug exit violently departed a newly built 737 Max 9 soon after takeoff from Portland International Airport in Oregon. Preliminary information indicates that the bolts designed to hold the exit in place were not on the airplane when it left Boeing’s factory in Renton.

“During a media briefing Tuesday about quality improvements at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a Boeing executive provided investigative information and gave an analysis of factual information previously released,” the board said in a statement to The Air Current. “Both of these actions are prohibited by the party agreement that Boeing signed when it was offered party status by the NTSB at the start of the investigation. As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing.”

In an unusual step, the NTSB is taking action against the plane maker for its comments, including removing its access to the docket of information gathered through the investigation. The NTSB will subpoena any relevant records from Boeing, and the plane maker will not be given the opportunity to ask questions of witnesses at the planned August hearing into the accident. Boeing remains a party to the investigation.

Additionally, the NTSB said, “Given that Boeing is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in relation to its Deferred Prosecution Agreement stemming from Boeing’s interactions with the FAA prior to the Boeing MAX fatalities, the NTSB will be coordinating with the DOJ Fraud Division to provide details about Boeing’s recent unauthorized investigative information releases in the 737 MAX 9 door plug investigation.”

This is the first time ever that I have heard of the NTSB referring something to the DoJ.

Generally, the Bureau is loathe to involve criminal authorities in their investigation.  They believe that that doing so will prevent cooperation, and hence prevent safety lessons.

It appears that the NTSB is sick and tired of Boeing's bullsh%$.  

Not a good look.

Just Add Hedge Funds

And you get pressure to never spend money on capital, even in the most tech heavy of industries.

Case in point, Texas Instruments, who is being pressured by hedge fund Elliott Management to eschew building new chip production plants and instead pay out dividends to ……… Wait for it ……… Hedge fund Elliott Management.

You heard that right, given that there are now some pretty significant subsidies for building out chip production under the CHIPS act that they would be walking away from.

The hedge fund doesn't care, they want their money now:

Notorious tech investment firm Elliott Management has penned a letter to Texas Instruments urging the company to change course on its aggressive plan to boost manufacturing capacity.

The $65 billion hedge fund, which has amassed a $2.5 billion stake in Texas Instruments, says in its letter [PDF] that the chipmaker is investing way too much into its 2022 plan to almost triple production capacity by 2030. Elliott Management's core reasoning is that TI is projected to overshoot demand by a significant margin in the coming years: 54 percent in 2026 and 50 percent in 2030, when the plan will be complete.

The expansion has already cost Texas Instruments billions. Its capital expenditure for most of the past 14 years has been a billion dollars or less, representing a single digit percentage of revenue. In 2021 and 2022, capex rose to 13 and 14 percent of revenue respectively, but that's nothing compared to the 29 percent seen in 2023. In 2024, capex is expected to rise further to 32 percent of revenue.

………

Get out your hankies, because Elliott says the consequences for shareholders have been notable. Free cash flow per share, something that Texas Instruments has historically prided itself on, has decreased by more than 75 percent since 2022. By contrast, free cash flow per share grew at an annual rate of 17 percent from 2006 to 2019, Elliot complains.

Consequently, Texas Instruments has underperformed its competitors in the past few years, the missive continues. Texas Instruments' stock price has risen about 89 percent compared to five years ago, while both Microchip and Analog Devices have both gained about 140 percent in value. This isn't entirely due to the fab expansion plan, Elliott claims, but is still an important factor.

………

Elliott's recommendation is far less radical than what it has pushed through with other tech companies as of late. Last year, it penned a letter to cell tower firm Crown Castle that called for a brand new slate of executives. It also successfully lobbied for Western Digital to cut itself in two different companies, which is set to happen later this year.

A spokesperson at Texas Instruments sent The Reg a statement: "We received the letter yesterday and are reviewing it. As always, our focus is on continuing to make decisions that are in the best interest of TI and all of our shareholders."

Do you know what you call 1000 hedge fund employees at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

Yeah, It is GM

It really is too much to expect consistency and competence, so we are seeing GM Reversing itself and bringing back hybrids 5 years after it made the initial decision.

They saw the growth numbers in EVs and wanted to get ahead of them, but neglected to consider that it was coming from a nearly non-existent base, and that sales would eventually stop growing at double digit rates.

General Motors was one of the first to foray into plug-in hybrids, but it abandoned them amid the hype for electric vehicles. Now that automakers are running up against the current limits of EV demand though, they're looking for other ways to curb fleet emissions. In GM's case, that way is an about-face and return to PHEVs after completely dismissing their potential just a few years ago.

"Our forward plans include bringing our plug-in hybrid technology to select vehicles in North America," said GM CEO Mary Barra during a Q4 earnings call transcribed by Automotive News. Barra added that GM still aimed to eliminate its light-duty vehicles' emissions by 2035, but said that hybrids will fill in the gaps where needed "from a compliance perspective." She didn't specify which segments they may occupy, but going by GM's history, they'll probably be brilliantly engineered and utterly neglected by marketing. So, get ready to scoop up a 2026 Chevy Volt PHEV or whatever instead of a used Blazer EV.

This is corporate speak for we f%$#ed up big time.

There has also been a spate of bad news regarding EVs, or more specifically Tesla lately, even when ignoring Musk's clown like (Pennywise, not Bozo) antics.

Tesla has had persistent problems with fit and finish, over-promising and under-delivering, low reliability, and flat out lying to customers.

Also, their recent price cuts have decimated retail values for all EVs.

I do think that electric cars are the future, but I think that this future is further away than people thought a few years ago.

They Have Photographs

Yeah, this is f%$#ed up andf sh%$


The hardware in questionThe NTSB has revealed that they have come into possession of photographs which indicate that the door was installed by Boeing without retention hardware.

It's time to start frog marching senior Boeing management out of their offices in handcuffs:

Four bolts used to secure the panel that ultimately blew off an Alaska Airlines plane during a flight last month were removed — and appear not to have been replaced — at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Wash., according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The panel, known as a door plug, was opened to repair damaged rivets on the plane’s fuselage, according to Boeing’s records. The report did not say who removed the bolts keeping the door plug in place. But the safety board said it appeared that not all the bolts were put back once the door was reinstalled on the plane after the rivets had been repaired.

As evidence, the N.T.S.B. provided a photograph of the door plug after it was reinstalled but before the interior was restored. In the image, three of the four bolts appear to be missing. The location of the fourth bolt is covered with insulation.

The report said the image had been attached to “a text message between Boeing team members on September 19, 2023.” The Boeing employees “were discussing interior restoration after the rivet rework was completed during second shift operations that day,” the report said.

So, no one thought to check up on this for 4 months?  Seriously?

If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

Still Cannot Make Planes

Earlier this month, I noted that Boeing asked for an exemption for the engine deicing system on its 737 MAX aircraft, which could blow up an engine if operated in non-icing conditions for more than 5 minutes.

As a result of the cluster fuck with the fuselage plug blowing out, Boeing has has withdrawn the request.

My guess is that this was done grudgingly, and only after the FAA made it clear that they would not get their waiver as things currently stand.

I do not think that Boeing management had an attack of conscience.

I do not thing that they have a conscience:

Under intense political pressure, Boeing on Monday withdrew its request for an exemption from key safety regulations to allow the 737 MAX 7 to be certified to carry passengers.

“We have informed the FAA that we are withdrawing our request for a time-limited exemption relating to the engine inlet de-icing system on the 737-7,” Boeing said in a statement. “We will instead incorporate an engineering solution that will be completed during the certification process.”

This means entry into passenger service of the MAX 7, the smallest model of the MAX family, will be significantly delayed until Boeing can design a fix for the flawed design and get it approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

………

The FAA had determined last summer that a design flaw uncovered in the MAX’s engine inlet de-icing system could be potentially catastrophic.

The MAX’s engine inlet, the circular part at the front end of the pod surrounding the engine — known as a nacelle — is made from carbon composite, unlike earlier model 737s, which have a metal inlet.

Flying through cold, water-saturated air, the de-icing system — similar in purpose to the defroster on a car — blows hot air onto the engine inlet to prevent a buildup of ice.

But Boeing discovered after the MAX entered service that if the system remained switched on after leaving the icy air, it could overheat and damage the composite structure, possibly leading it to break off the nacelle.


In an August Airworthiness Directive, the FAA stated that debris from such a breakup could penetrate the fuselage, putting passengers seated at windows behind the wings in danger, and could damage the wing or tail of the plane, “which could result in loss of control of the airplane.”

Gee, that sounds bad.

………

However, that compromise solution couldn’t work for a jet like the MAX 7 that is not yet certified. To get that approval to carry passengers, it must meet all safety regulations.

Hence Boeing’s petition for a formal exemption for the MAX 7 from the safety standards until it designed a solution.

Yeah, their solution is to add a page to the flight manual.  This is not adequate.

If an aircraft if flying in icing conditions, even if it is certified for those conditions, pilots will have their hands full, and turning off bleed air as soon as they are out of icing conditions can be something that gets missed.

The fact that there are thousands of aircraft currently flying with a deicing system that can cause a catastrophic failure today does not reassure.

If It's Boeing, I Ain't Going

We now have a leak from what appears to be an inside source at Boeing that it was Boeing, and not Spirit AeroSystems that misinstalled the screws. (Original source is a commenter at Leeham News)

Going into great detail on the nature of the work, and the specifics of the various manufacturing and quality systems at the plant, he notes that the plugs and doors are routinely removed at the Renton facility for either access or repair:

The fuselage panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines jet earlier this month was removed for repair then reinstalled improperly by Boeing mechanics on the Renton final assembly line, a person familiar with the details of the work told The Seattle Times.

If verified by the National Transportation Safety Board investigation, this would leave Boeing primarily at fault for the accident, rather than its supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which originally installed the panel into the 737 MAX 9 fuselage in Wichita, Kan.

That panel, a door plug used to seal a hole in the fuselage sometimes used to accommodate an emergency exit, blew out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 as it climbed out of Portland on Jan. 5. The hair-raising incident drew fresh and sharp criticism of Boeing’s quality control systems and safety culture, which has been under the microscope since two fatal 737 MAX crashes five years ago.

Last week, a different person — an anonymous whistleblower who appears to have access to Boeing’s manufacturing records of the work done assembling the specific Alaska Airlines jet that suffered the blowout — on an aviation website separately provided many additional details about how the door plug came to be removed and then mis-installed.

“The reason the door blew off is stated in black and white in Boeing’s own records,” the whistleblower wrote. “It is also very, very stupid and speaks volumes about the quality culture at certain portions of the business.”

The self-described Boeing insider said company records show four bolts that prevent the door plug from sliding up off the door frame stop pads that take the pressurization loads in flight, “were not installed when Boeing delivered the airplane.” the whistleblower stated. “Our own records reflect this.”

NTSB investigators already publicly raised the possibility that the bolts had not been installed.

As an aside, major props to the writer of this story, Seattle Times aerospace reporter Dominic Gates, for crediting the online source of this revelation, and providing a link further down in the article.

You rarely, if ever, see this in papers like the New York Times or Washington Post.rarely acknowledge online reporting.

The account goes on to describe shocking lapses in Boeing’s quality control process in Renton.

The work of the mechanics on the door plug should have been formally inspected and signed off by a Boeing quality inspector.

It wasn’t, the whistleblower wrote, because of a process failure and the use of two separate systems to record what work was accomplished.

Boeing’s 737 production system is described as “a rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen.”

If that account of what happened is indeed fully documented in Boeing’s system it should be readily verified by the investigation.

This is huge if true.

Hell, if even only the underlying processes and procedures are largely as described, and no smoking gun is found, this is huge.

Snark of the Day

It's funny because it's true.

It's sad because it's true.

At least there is symmetry.

If It's Boeing, I Ain't Going

Boeing is currently trying to get a waiver on addressing a de-icing flaw on a model of their 737 Max that can blow up the engine nacelle, but I'm not writing about that tonight.

An Alaska airlines 737 MAX just suffered an explosive decompression when an emergency exit blew off in flight.

Given that these doors open in, it's a safety feature to prevent the doors from blowing off in flight, it is clear that something went very wrong, particularly on a jet that has been in service for less than 2 months:

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 was forced to divert on Friday night after one of its windows blew out mid-flight. The aircraft, operating as Alaska 1282, had just departed from Portland, Oregon bound for Ontario, California when the indecent occurred.

Passengers onboard the aircraft report that a child’s shirt was ripped off when the incident occurred, though it is unclear at the time of writing if anyone was injured during the incident. A hole was found in the ceiling of the aircraft.

It is clear to me that the MBA style of management that Boeing has adopted is not working.

Still Can't Make Planes

Boeing has been forced to expand inspections and slow production of its 737 MAX as its pressure bulkhead defects problems metastasizes.

This is what happens when you let the finance guys run things:

Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems have expanded the scope of their ongoing inspections of a production defect affecting 737 Max 8 aircraft, Boeing said on Thursday.

The planemaker in August identified a new quality problem with its popular 737 MAX aircraft involving supplier Spirit that resulted in improperly drilled holes on the aft pressure bulkhead made using an automated drill. Boeing has expanded inspections to include hand-drilled holes, according to trade publication The Air Current, which first reported the problem.

"We continue to take the time necessary to ensure each airplane meets our standards and regulatory requirements prior to ticketing and delivery," Boeing said in a statement.

The company declined to comment further on the scope of the latest issue or whether it will be able to meet its 737 delivery target of at least 400 jets in 2023, citing the quiet period before it announces its earnings on Oct. 25.

Boeing notified the Federal Aviation Administration of its initial findings earlier this week, along with customers already facing delivery delays of 737 Max 8s, according to The Air Current.

I will never forgive the Clinton administration for arm twisting Boeing into merging with McDonnell in the 1990s.

The subsequent takeover of Boeing by McDonnell executives, most infamously Harry Stonesphincter has basically destroyed the company.

The Front Fell Off

The "Front Fell Off" Reference Explained

One of the problems with Tesla as an automobile manufacturer is that it is the personification of Elon Musk, and Elon Musk does not get either Automobiles or manufacturing.

Case in point, steering wheels are coming off the steering columns.  

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Either they are pushing so hard to get cars out the door that someone screwed up and left a bolt off the steering wheel installation, or a disgruntled worker had a serious case of F$# it all ……… Or maybe both.

In any case, I'm not riding in a Tesla:

Tesla has yet another federal headache to contend with. On March 4, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary investigation after two reports of Tesla Model Y steering wheels detaching in drivers' hands while driving.

NHTSA's ODI says that in both cases, the model year 2023 Model Ys each required repairs on the production line that involved removing their steering wheels. The wheels were refitted but were only held in place by friction—Tesla workers never replaced the retaining bolt that affixes the steering wheel to the steering column. In 2018, Ford had to recall more than 1.3 million vehicles after an incorrectly sized bolt resulted in a similar problem.

There have been other cases like this, but they were all detected and resolved before the steering wheels come off on an interstate. 

………

An Associated Press report says that in one of the two cases, the wheel detached five days after the vehicle was delivered to a customer in New Jersey. According to AP, Tesla initially told the aggrieved owner that it could fix the broken car at a cost of $103.96. Tesla later replaced the car for free.

5 years ago, I could understand someone wanting a Tesla.  For all of their flaws 5 years ago, none of which have been fixed yet, it was the only game in town.

Now, there are plenty of cars that deliver decent range and performance, and they are better built and sometimes cheaper.

The Germans are Less Respectful of Authority

It appears that, German workers at Tesla’s Berlin plant do not tolerate the sh%$ that American workers accept.

American workers appear to be singularly deferential to authority:

As Elon Musk attempts to manage Twitter after mass layoffs in November, his flagship company Tesla is also facing staffing problems globally, with vacancies doubling since mid-June, coupled with exits at its newest gigafactory in Germany.

When the gigafactory in Berlin opened in March, it had a target to produce 5,000 vehicles a week by the end of this year. But it is far from reaching its goals after facing major recruitment problems—the company has so far managed to hire just 7,000 people out of a planned 12,000. This lack of personnel is coupled with missed ambitious production targets; in 2022 Musk told German media he expected to build half a million Teslas in Berlin in 2022.

The company is also losing experienced personnel, according to former and current employees at the gigafactory. They say that current staffers are leaving jobs due to low and unequal pay and inexperienced management in the highly competitive German manufacturing sector. Tesla did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.

………

Worldwide, Tesla reached a record number of vacancies for the year in November, listing almost 7,500 jobs. This is double the postings in mid-June, according to data from its own website. Though most of these vacancies were in the US, Germany was in second place, with 386 vacancies advertised at the Berlin plant on November 11, including one for a “high-volume recruiter.”

Local labor specialists say it is unlikely Tesla will be able to find more qualified workers to fill the gap, because it is seen as an unattractive employer in the heavily unionized German auto sector, and it competes with rival carmaker Volkswagen for skilled workers in the Berlin area. The Job Centre in nearby Frankfurt (Oder) said on October 4 that Tesla had hired 1,000 previously unemployed workers already, calling it “the biggest recruitment project since reunification,” and according to some reports, Tesla is already the largest private employer in Brandenburg.

According to the German metalworkers union IG Metall, Tesla is paying 20 percent less than similar businesses based on staff contracts and job descriptions. IG Metall representative Birgit Dietze wrote in a press release in June, “We know from active IG Metall members that recruitment is not happening at the planned speed.”

Gee you pay your employees poorly.

………

In September, the Tesla factory's fire brigade was unable to put out a large cardboard fire itself and called in help from local firefighters. It then emerged that Tesla had no working fire alarms.

And you have a dangerous workplace.

In the last year, Tesla dropped from being German engineering graduates’ second preferred employer (behind Google) to sixth. It is now behind German car manufacturers like Porsche, with some respondents pointing to Elon Musk’s comments about firing employees who wanted to work from home.

………

One of the reasons for this production deficit is the delay of the planned full third-shift system to keep the factory running 24 hours a day, a source familiar with the matter says. This shift was supposed to be implemented in September 2022, but it has reportedly been pushed back. This third shift will require production workers to change their shift patterns every day, across a seven-working-day period. A number of current staff at Tesla Grünheide were unhappy about this, complaining that these working conditions were not in their contract and saying that it exacerbated preexisting staffing problems, the current employee says. They blamed numbers-driven recruitment targets. “People in HR want to hit their targets for recruitment, so they will say anything to get people in, but not pay attention to keeping these workers,” they say.

………

Just before they started, the former employee says they received an updated contract with a new job title. The initial job description had specified that staff must be “willing to work weekends and nights determined by project,” which they had understood to mean occasional nights and weekends in special circumstances.

But without any warning, they were given a new job description that required them to work early, night, and weekend shifts. “After two months they changed my shift to a 24/7 three-shift system. I have a young son, and for us it was hard to manage,” the former employee says, adding that they had no family support available, because they had moved away from family for the job. When they complained about this, “there was a lack of empathy” from Tesla, and the employee claims they reported inflexibility in changing shift plans, even when the factory was not producing cars due to machines not functioning, with significantly reduced tasks.

And you treat your employees like sh%$.  Actually, it appears that you fetishize treating your employees like sh%$, requiring them to come in on 3rd shift, even when there is no work for them.

It's as if your management culture sprung from the head of a man who grew up white and privileged in Apartheid South Africa, and thinks that everyone should kowtow to him.

Oh, yeah, right.

Still Can't Make Planes, or Anything

That high tech remote viewing refueling boom system for Boeing's KC-46 is facing a 19 month delay.

McDonnel Aircraft Corporation has destroyed 2 national treasures, Douglas and now Boeing.

This is what happens when MBA types take over engineering driven company:

The KC-46’s new remote vision system (RVS) will not be operational until October 2025, a 19-month delay from the previous plan as the U.S. Air Force and Boeing negotiate subcontractor development timelines as well as both service and FAA airworthiness processes.

Boeing and Air Force officials had planned for the new RVS system to be operational in 2024, stemming from the April 2020 agreement between the two sides to overhaul the system’s cameras and sensors and redesign the boom operator station. The service in an Oct. 7 statement says the delay will involve no additional costs to the government, since there have been no changes to the government-furnished design specification that was on contract under the preliminary design review earlier this year.

The critical design review (CDR) for the RVS 2.0 overhaul is still ongoing, as the Air Force and Boeing still need to finalize a way ahead for airworthiness certification of the commercial-off-the-shelf cameras that will be installed. Those issues are due to be resolved by year’s end. Other noncritical actions are being addressed as well, but the closure is not needed to finish the CDR, the service says. As part of the agreement for the cameras, Boeing will pay about $125 million for nonrecurring engineering for wiring and other preparations, while the Air Force will pay to furnish the cameras.

“Our defense industrial base continues to face supply chain issues and we’re seeing effects in the acquisition schedules of technically complex systems, such as the KC-46 Remote Visual System 2.0,” Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, says in a statement. “We’ll continue to examine possible opportunities to accelerate the schedule to bring this increased operational capability to the tanker fleet. KC-46s will continue to support worldwide deployments to meet the daily Joint Force air refueling demands.”

 This is what happens when finance types run things.

Only About a Year Late

Boeing has finally gotten FAA approval to restart deliveries of the 787.

Following the dual debacles of the 737 MAX and 787, the FAA did not allow Boeing to self certify its solution to the problems.

They still don't know how to make planes.

In fact torturous path to getting the plane out the door in the first place, where Boeing attempted to foist off most of the serious engineering and manufacturing onto, "Risk Sharing Partners," strongly implies that they aren't interested in making planes.

They have done their best to reduce everything to marketing and financial engineering, and not actual engineering:

Boeing Co. received preliminary US regulatory clearance to restart deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft, paving the way for the end to a drought that drained cash and dented the planemaker’s reputation for quality.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing’s plans to inspect and repair tiny manufacturing flaws in the Dreamliner’s carbon-composite frame, two people familiar with the plan said late Friday. The jet manufacturer had largely halted deliveries since late 2020 as its engineers found improperly filled gaps in about 20 locations.

The FAA agreement is a milestone for the company, but it won’t immediately resume deliveries. Boeing must still make required fixes and get FAA inspectors to approve each aircraft, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information hasn’t been publicly announced. While timing of delivery resumptions remains unclear, the company is aiming to begin in the week of Aug. 8, one of the people said.

………

The resumption of shipments will mark a financial turnaround for Boeing after years of operational lapses that have frustrated customers, suppliers and investors. It’s also a potential catalyst for Boeing shares, since the Arlington, Virginia-based company will start to unlock nearly $10 billion in cash tied up in Dreamliners stashed around its factories and in desert storage, according to Rob Spingarn, an analyst with Melius Research.

………

The chief problem for the 787 had been how the plane’s carbon-fiber fuselage sections were joined, which didn’t meet Boeing’s design specifications but wasn’t deemed to be a safety hazard.

The company’s plan to resume sales also includes addressing how the planemaker constructed the so-called forward pressure bulkhead, the structure near the nose that maintains pressurized atmosphere, and other issues that had arisen during the past year, said one of the people.

This is what happens when the marketing and finance guys take over.