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Did he jump or was he pushed? Personally I have been looking for the rolling heads in the Dreamliner program for some time as I have formed the opinion, surely widespread that there is more management than technical problems at Boeing and a scapegoat would be found somewhere. All the usual flatterning things are being said about Scott E Carson who has been in charge of the Boeing commercial plane programs since 2006. It does look as if enough is enough for him either in terms of butting his head against a brick wall or simply pushing a pile of unpleasant material up hill with a pointy stick but what ever is the real reason Carson is leaving early.
The Boeing Company said Monday that the executive overseeing its commercial-plane programs, including the delayed 787 Dreamliner, would retire. Scott E Carson, an executive at Boeing in charge of its commercial-plane programs since 2006, is retiring. Carson, 63, has led the commercial division since 2006, a period in which the new plane was delayed repeatedly by a variety of problems. He will be succeeded on Tuesday by James F. Albaugh, the company’s top executive for military programs, though Mr. Carson will not formally retire until the end of the year, Boeing said in a statement.
Dennis Muilenburg, 45, will succeed Mr. Albaugh, 59, at Boeing’s military systems division. Four days earlier, Boeing, based in Chicago, set a new schedule for the Dreamliner. The company said that it expected the plane’s first test flight to happen by the end of the year and that deliveries to airlines would start in the fourth quarter of 2010. Boeing’s chief executive, W. James McNerney Jr., told reporters and stock analysts that Mr. Carson, who had a background in finance and marketing, had made the decision to retire on his own. “The decision to retire was Scott’s,” Mr. McNerney said, adding that Mr. Carson felt that, with the new schedule, he would be “giving his successor a clear path forward on the program.” Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Leeham Company, an aviation consulting firm, said he believed that Mr. Carson had been planning to step down for some time. Mr. Hamilton said Mr. Carson told him at the Paris air show in June that he intended to retire once both the 787 and 747-8, an updated version of the jumbo jet that is also expected to fly later this year, completed their first flights. Mr. McNerney praised Mr. Albaugh as one of the company’s most experienced executives. He also said that Mr. Albaugh, an engineer who has headed Boeing’s military, space and related businesses since 2002, “is a technical guy himself.” Mr. Albaugh holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics from Willamette University, and a master’s degree in civil engineering from Columbia. He will soon relocate to the Seattle area. Mr. Albaugh “has a deep appreciation for the kind of oversight we need to blend into our development efforts here,” Mr. McNerney said. Mr. Carson had been credited with reviving sales of commercial aircraft before the recession hit. But the 787 Dreamliner, lighter and more fuel-efficient than other airplanes, has been plagued by delays stemming from supply problems, a labor strike, parts shortages and structural flaws. It is Boeing’s first major new airplane in a decade and the most popular program in the company’s history, with more than 800 advance orders. But its first test flight is more than two years behind schedule and the plane, which will make extensive use of lightweight plastic composite in place of aluminum, was originally planned for delivery in May 2008.
Mr. Albaugh has been at Boeing for 34 years. While he led the company’s military and space businesses, the unit’s revenue grew to $34 billion, from $25 billion, the company said, though its revenue flattened out as Pentagon spending peaked. During the last two years, Boeing transferred other executives from its military business into top management roles on the Dreamliner project as it tried to get it back on track.
NY Time See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/01boeing.html