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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. Read more…

There was another of the three great suspect statements but I forget it.
Boeing Co. announced yesterday that the 787 Dreamliner would make its first test flight by year-end — two years behind its original schedule — and the first aircraft would be delivered by the end of 2010, ending months of speculation.
But a string of delays have already strained Boeing’s credibility with airline customers and the new schedule renews pressure on the company to get its new marquee commercial airliner airborne in short order — even as news of problems with Boeing’s global manufacturing system have leaked out in recent weeks.
“We understand the need to make the best and safest aircraft possible,” said All Nippon Airways Co., which is slated to receive the first Dreamliners. “However, as launch customer and future operator of the 787, the length of this further delay is a source of great dismay.” The Japanese carrier has a total of 55 of the aircraft on order. Read more…

It is not long in the past that using a mobile phone at work was regarded as uncouth to say the least and many offices had rules against this practice. Inflight use was frowned on and in Australia at least there was a time when it was illegal. Now the utility and ubiquity of the mobile phone is being recognised.
En-route documents now list the phone numbers of ATC and weather information and their usefulness in operations when communication difficulties exist is recognised. Pilots are becoming used to the fact that the mobile phone is there as a back up (I had cause to use one when rain caused a total com failure while I was on a charter flight). Many pilots are finding that using their mobiles to phone the AWIS is better than plugging away trying to get the info from Flight Service (not due to them being uncooperative but rather understaffed due cost cutting).
The latest example of this was in the US in California where Air traffic controllers had to resort to mobile phones to relay messages to planes under their guidance during a communications failure at a major control centre. Read more…

WW 1 and to a lesser extent WW2 caught the US and Europe unprepared for conflict and with an industrial base of modest proportions. Despite many warning signs political decisions were it seems based on what government officials hope to be the case rather than what experts were warning to be the case. As the sage said those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. There are some commentators who see a similar situation developing again. World War I caught the U.S. military unprepared, and although Congress was quick to order a massive buildup of guns, tanks and planes, with “virtually no defense industrial base … the war was over before U.S. industry could deliver any of them.” Today’s Pentagon budget cuts risk a return to the same situation. Read more…