Are you one of those people who really, really loves to fly? One of those people who has never had the thought that the only things keeping you from free fall at 30,000 feet are a bunch of nuts, bolts, wires and metal? If you say “yes” then read on.
Following are some heart warming quotes from the lead story in today’s Wall Street Journal about the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This may be one of those cases where it would have been better for Boeing to have gone all George Bush and keep this information from the public. (Please note the use of some of some very special verbs and adjectives.)
“Boeing Scrambles To Fix Problems With New 787. Hostage to Suppliers. Fuel-sipping jet. Build much of the plane from carbon-fiber plastic instead of aluminum. The first jet in Boeing’s 91-year history designed largely by other companies. To lower the $10 billion or so it would cost to develop the plane solo, Boeing authorized a team of parts suppliers to design and build major sections of the craft, which it planner to snap together at it Seattle-area factory. The supplier problems ranged from language barriers to snafus that erupted when suppliers themselves outsourced chunks of work. The first Dreamliner to show up at Boeing’s factory was missing tens of thousands of part….”
Stewardess, another beer please?