Boeing's goings...

[J.O.]

On 5/30/2024 at 4:55 AM, deicer said:

If you're into baseball, you know....

Actually, he’s better suited for Boeing senior management. Making bad calls and then denying culpability is kinda their thing.

[Malcolm]

Ouch!!!!

 

Boeing Mechanic Accuses Company Managers Of Telling Employees To Keep Quiet

Story by Rich Thomaselli

 • 3h • 2 min read

Boeing Manufacturing Facility.© wolterke / Adobe Stock

This could be a damning accusation. A mechanic for more than 30 years at Boeing’s largest assembly plant has accused managers of trying to suppress workers from discussing safety concerns.

The man worked at a plant in Everett, Washington, that produced the 747, 767, 777, and 787 models.

 

Boeing’s issues with quality assurance and safety have come under scrutiny since a January 5 incident in which a door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane in midflight.

The mechanic said many 787 Dreamliners at the Everett plant come from Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Final Assembly building in South Carolina and could be flying with issues. Boeing has yet to comment on the allegations as several government agencies are investigating.

Another man claimed that Boeing failed to install fillers that would prevent fatigue over time. He said that more than 1,000 of the 787s are affected. On its website, the company previously wrote that all planes are safe and that it is confident in their structural ability.

“(There has been) comprehensive work done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft. Claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate," Boeing wrote.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration said the company is investigating the charges for failing to inspect the 787 models and that Boeing is re-inspecting all 787 jets in production.

"The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records," the agency said in a statement.

Boeing has previously been accused of trying to impede the investigation.

 

Boeing Mechanic Accuses Company Managers Of Telling Employees To Keep Quiet (msn.com)

[Specs]

7 hours ago, Malcolm said:

"The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records," the agency said in a statement.

If found to be true people, the responsible executives and managers, need to go to jail.

Why is that so hard to understand?  Maybe if we frame it by saying it's worse than Trumps falsified records because the people Boeing lied to may die and by the time it's discovered many of them will be dead..

[Malcolm]

 

FAA investigating Boeing 737 ‘Dutch roll’ incident, ‘substantial’ damage

By Sarah Do Couto  Global News

Posted June 14, 2024 9:18 am

 Updated June 14, 2024 9:19 am

 3 min read

 

FILE - The FAA has launched an investigation into a Boeing 737 owned by Southwest Airlines that experienced a rare "Dutch roll" during a May 25, 2024, flight to Oakland. 

A Boeing 737 jet owned by Southwest Airlines has been grounded amid a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation into a rare mid-air manoeuvre called a “Dutch roll” that occurred mid-flight.

The plane was travelling from Phoenix, Ariz., to Oakland, Calif., on May 25 when the yawing movement occurred nearly 32,000 feet (almost 9,750 metres) in the air.According to a 2022 Boeing safety pamphlet about Dutch rolls, the motion occurs when a plane moves in two axes as it tips from wingtip to wingtip while the tail rocks side to side. A Dutch roll can be caused by both wind and pilot input, but is nauseating for passengers in either circumstance.

Federal officials said the Dutch roll may have been caused by damage to the jet’s backup power-control unit (PCU), which commands the jet’s vertical rudder.

 

The damage was discovered during a post-flight inspection of the aircraft.

The Boeing 737 has been grounded since the flight. An FAA incident report revealed there were 175 passengers and six crew members onboard Flight N8825Q.

No injuries were reported, and the plane landed safely in Oakland after pilots were able to regain control of the Boeing 737 following the Dutch roll. The FAA has declared the incident an accident, and Boeing has declined to comment about the incident.

Authorities said the damage to the jet is “substantial.”

Federal officials told CBS News there have been no other reports of similar issues at other airlines. Southwest has not experienced the problem among any other aircraft in its fleet.

The Aviation Herald, which was first to report of the Dutch roll, said the affected 737 has been “ferried” to Boeing’s plant in Everett, Wash., for repairs.

It is not clear what caused the loss of control during the Southwest Airlines flight.

News of the Dutch roll is only the latest drama for Boeing, which was subject to FAA probes and mass groundings after one of its 737-9 Max jetliners suffered a blowout of a fuselage panel in January. The incident and subsequent Boeing issues shook public trust in the company.

 

Boeing remains under several investigations.

In a report from the company in May, Boeing said it is dedicated to safety and is continually innovating safety trends using machine-learning algorithms that are designed to identify problem areas. Boeing reported it is making changes to address recommendations from an FAA panel.

As of this writing, no passenger on the affected flight has publicly spoken out about the incident.

[Malcolm]

Exclusive: Boeing nearing deal with supplier Spirit Aero after months of talks

By Mike Stone, Allison Lampert, David Shepardson and Tim Hepher

June 20, 202411:13 PM MDTUpdated 8 hours ago

• Spirit Aero, Airbus make progress on asset carve-out to unblock deal for Boeing, sources say
• Exact timing of a Boeing-Spirit Aero deal is unclear
• Spirit posted a wider-than-expected net loss of $617 million in Q1

June 20 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab is nearing a deal to buy back Spirit AeroSystems (SPR.N), opens new tab after its former subsidiary made substantial progress in separate talks with Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab over a transatlantic breakup of the struggling supplier, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Boeing initiated talks earlier this year to buy back the Wichita, Kansas-based supplier it spun off in 2005, seeking to stabilize a key part of the supply chain for its strongest-selling jet following a mid-air blow out on a new 737 MAX in January. However, talks hit a stumbling block over Spirit's work for Airbus, with the European group threatening to block any deal that involved Boeing building parts for its newest models.

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Boeing and Airbus have broadly succeeded in dividing Spirit's programs into work that Boeing will take back, along with work that the planemaker's European rival Airbus will take. There is also a third category of programs that may be sold or dealt with separately, said one of the sources.

The exact timing of the deal is unclear, but the sources said it could come within days or weeks, barring last-minute snags.

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All of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

Airbus, which has been widely seen as the main stumbling block to a deal, is seeing "good progress" in talks with Spirit, a source familiar with the matter said. A second source said a deal over Spirit's Airbus-related assets was more likely than not before Airbus' mid-year earnings in July.

Boeing declined comment. Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino did not comment specifically on the talks, saying, "our focus remains on providing the highest quality products for our customers.”

Boeing has said it is buying back Spirit to secure safety and quality in its plants, after blaming Spirit for sending incomplete or faulty parts to its factories.

But several industry sources said the Jan. 5 blowout also rekindled Boeing's earlier interest in buying back the company because of concerns over Spirit's financial and industrial resilience as well as the need to invest in digital production systems.

 

Spirit posted a net loss of $617 million and burned through $444 million in the first quarter, far more than analysts had expected.

Spirit Aero shares were up 4.1% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

In April, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told Reuters it was "not unlikely" that Airbus would take over Spirit's operations for the A350, its premier long-haul jet whose upper mid-fuselage is made in Kinston, North Carolina, and the small A220, whose wings are made at a Spirit plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Airbus and Boeing had been working to overcome hangups on inventory costs and the value of contracts, two sources said.

An Airbus spokesperson said the company is in discussions "with Spirit AeroSystems to protect the sourcing of our programmes and to define a more sustainable way forward, both operationally and financially, for the various Airbus work packages that Spirit AeroSystems is responsible for today."

Get the latest news and expert analysis about the state of the global economy with Reuters Econ World. Sign up here.

Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal, Mike Stone and David Shepardson in Washington and Tim Hepher in Paris Editing by David Gaffen and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trus

[deicer]

With the latest delay, I will reiterate two things I have said.  I believe it will 'return' to earth empty, and I wouldn't strap my keister into it.

https://www.dw.com/en/boeing-starliner-return-to-earth-delayed-again-no-date-set/a-69444346

Boeing Starliner return to Earth delayed again, no date set

NASA and Boeing have decided to indefinitely postpone the return of the Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS) to Earth, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

The two-astronaut mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), was set to return to Earth on June 26. It had been initially set to last about eight days but was later extended.

When will Boeing Starliner return to Earth?

"We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

The mission managers are assessing future return options following the station's two planned spacewalks on Monday, June 24, and Tuesday, July 2, according to NASA. 

"We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking," Stitch said, assuring that the Starliner is performing well in orbit while docked to the space station. 

According to NASA's statement, the crew "is not pressed for time to leave the station since there are plenty of supplies in orbit, and the station's schedule is relatively open through mid-August."

 

[Malcolm]

 

Criminal charges recommended against Boeing

7 hours ago

By João da Silva, Business reporter

Share

Reuters

US prosecutors have recommended that the Department of Justice (DoJ) brings criminal charges against Boeing.

It follows a claim by the DoJ that the plane maker had violated a settlement related to two fatal crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft which killed 346 people.

Boeing declined to comment when contacted by the BBC but previously it has denied violating the deferred prosecution agreement.

The DoJ has until 7 July to make a final decision on whether to prosecute the company. The DoJ has been contacted for comment.

The recommendation is not a final decision and the details of any potential criminal action are not known, according to CBS, the BBC's US partner.

"This is a really critical decision that is coming up,” said Ed Pierson, who is the executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety and a former senior manager at Boeing.

He told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: "There are issues with these aeroplanes. We’re seeing problems with these planes and I’m talking about 737 Max, 787 and it is reflective of the leadership."

The plane crashes - both involving Boeing's 737 Max aircraft - occurred within six months of each other.

The crash involving Indonesia's Lion Air occurred in October 2018, following by an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019.

Last week, relatives of the victims urged prosecutors to seek a fine against Boeing of $25bn (£14.6bn) and to pursue a criminal prosecution.

Under a deal reached in 2021, Boeing said it would pay a $2.5bn settlement and prosecutors agreed to ask the court to drop a criminal charge after three years if the company abided by certain stipulations set out in the deferred prosecution agreement.

But last month, the DoJ said Boeing was in breach of the deal, stating that it had failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations".

 

Boeing crash families demand record $25bn fine

Boeing may face criminal prosecution over 737 Max crashes, US says

Last week, Boeing's outgoing chief executive Dave Calhoun faced a grilling from US senators.

Mr Calhoun testified that the company had "learned" from past mistakes and that the process for employee whistleblowers "works" - but lawmakers still accused him of not doing enough to rectify a culture of retaliation.

As part of an ongoing investigation, Boeing whistleblowers told the Senate in April that the 737 Max, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777 models had serious production issues.

The company was most recently put in the spotlight when a door panel fell off a new 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, leaving a gaping hole.

Mr Calhoun is stepping down as chief executive at the end of 2024 after less than five years in the role with a pay package worth $33m. He will also remain on Boeing's board.

Mr Calhoun took over the job from Dennis Muilenburg who was fired after the two crashes.

Mr Pearson said the changes at the top of Boeing were "superficial" and even when Mr Calhoun was named as chief executive in 2019, he had already been at the company for a decade.

"They are making those decisions that are affecting millions and millions of people for many, many years," he said.

[Malcolm]

How potential Boeing criminal charges could have ‘huge’ impact globally

By Sean Previl  Global News

Posted June 25, 2024 3:01 pm

 Updated June 25, 2024 3:50 pm

 3 min read

Why Boeing's potential criminal charges could have 'huge' impact globally

The clock is ticking for Boeing as the U.S. Justice Department has until July 7 to decide whether to prosecute the planemaker after prosecutors alleged the company violated a deferred prosecution agreement related to two fatal crashes, with lawyers recommending criminal charges.

Officials alleged in May that the 2021 agreement, which shielded Boeing from a criminal charge of conspiracy to commit fraud arising from the 2018 and 2019 fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX jet, had been breached.

Arnold & Porter law firm partner Deborah Curtis told Global News the recommendations of charges will add to the impact Boeing has been dealing with in the past months.

“This is not something that’s going away easily for Boeing at all,” she said in an interview. “It could have huge second and third order effects for Boeing and for countries all over the world.”

Criminal charges would be just the latest crisis for the company, which has seen multiple incidents involving its planes in recent months, including when a panel blew off one of its jets mid-flight in early January.

The exact criminal charges recommended by U.S. prosecutors have not been reported, though Reuters has stated they could extend beyond the original fraud charge from 2021.wmakers confront Boeing CEO

Curtis said there are a number of things that could be on the table, ranging from an extension of the deferred prosecution agreement to charges being laid which could have varying effects.

Boeing could be ordered to pay additional fines, on top of the US$2.5 billion it paid to settle the investigation back in 2021, face further penalties or new charges.

With revenue coming from U.S. government contracts, any potential charges or felony conviction could jeopardize that. Curtis noted it could also impact contracts in Canada as well.

Global News reached out to Transport Canada for comment on the potential charges faced by Boeing, but did not hear back by publication.

Curtis added regardless of what the Justice Department does, it will be careful in how it proceeds.

“They may look to structure a guilty plea or some other penalty to do the least damage they can to civil and military operations,” she said.

Vincent Correia, co-director of the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University, told Global News that when federal prosecutors lay charges in high-profile cases it can be part of a wider goal.

“It’s part of a more general trend, ultimately, to use criminal investigations in order to basically find the truth,” he said.

In terms of Boeing, it’s difficult to say whether charges will be filed. But the public perception around the recommendation of them adds to Boeing’s challenges.

“The airline sector, the business, they still trust Boeing,” he said. “Then it will be an issue about the trust of the public to board those aircraft.”

Regardless, McGill University aviation management professor John Gradek told Global News that Boeing is going to stick around as it makes up about half of the commercial aviation industry’s market share, but it will have work to do.

“It’s going to be really a question of trust, rebuilding the trust that Boeing has to build with its traveling public, with its purchasers,” Gradek said.

“There’s a lot of work that has to be done by Boeing to kind of get back into everybody’s good books. And it’s going to take years, in my opinion, to get there.”

[Specs]

Don Hudson would have some interesting thoughts here I bet.   

The entire ordeal is the inevitable result of corporations putting profits above all else and the passive willingness of those companies to let people die in preventable deaths as long as there's not enough of them to draw attention or a class action suit.  It's no different than Ford did with the Pinto and the Explorer.   I don't have a hard time believing that in those cases that some executive combined some mental math with some flexible ethics to justify that it was more cost effective and better for the world to let a few hundred people die in a rear end fireball or a rollover than it would be to launch a redesign and retrofit.  

It's time that our Justice systems recognize, among a wealth of other shortcomings, corporate malfeasance, and punish the enablers and conspirators on such acts extremely harshly. 

Edited Thursday at 01:14 PM by Specs

[Malcolm]

NTSB sanctions Boeing over release of 737 MAX investigation details, flags to DOJ

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The National Transportation Safety Board said early on Thursday it was sanctioning Boeing for disclosing non-public details of the ongoing investigation into a 737 MAX mid-air emergency and referring its conduct to the Justice Department.

The NTSB said Boeing had "blatantly violated" the agency's investigative regulations by providing "non-public investigative information to the media" and speculating about possible causes of the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout.

The move by Boeing has further deepened the strain between the crisis-hit planemaker and government agencies at a time when it is trying to avoid criminal charges being brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ahead of a July 7 deadline.

The NTSB said Boeing would retain its status as a party to the investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident, but it would no longer have access to the information the agency produces during its probe.

The planemaker will not be allowed to ask questions of other participants at an investigative hearing on August 6-7, whereas other participants at the hearing will be allowed to do so.

"As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing," the NTSB said.

The NTSB said Boeing had violated an agreement with the agency during a media briefing about quality improvements at its commercial airplanes division on Tuesday in Washington state.

"A Boeing executive provided investigative information and gave an analysis of factual information previously released," the agency said. "Both of these actions are prohibited by the party agreement that Boeing signed."

The NTSB, which will subpoena Boeing to appear at the investigative hearing in August, also said it would refer Boeing's recent conduct to the DOJ.

Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment outside normal business hours.

DOJ SCRUTINY

In May, the DOJ said Boeing had violated a 2021 settlement agreement with prosecutors that shielded it from criminal prosecution over its interactions with the Federal Aviation Authority prior to fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

 

Even before the NTSB sanctions, U.S. prosecutors were recommending criminal charges be brought against Boeing after finding it violated the deferred prosecution agreement that required it to overhaul its compliance practices, Reuters reported on Sunday.

"Given that Boeing is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in relation to its Deferred Prosecution Agreement ...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," the agency said.

The DOJ has a separate criminal probe into the MAX 9 door plug emergency. In February, the NTSB said the door panel was missing four key bolts.

The NTSB said on Thursday that after it had learned of the unauthorized release of information, Boeing provided the agency with a transcript of the media briefing.

 

"The transcript revealed that Boeing provided non-public investigative information to the news media that NTSB had not verified or authorized for release," the NTSB said.

"Boeing offered opinions and analysis on factors it suggested were causal to the accident," it added.

It is the latest strain between Boeing and the NTSB. In March, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a U.S. Senate hearing that Boeing had failed to provide the names of employees on its 737 MAX door team for two months, drawing criticism from lawmakers. Boeing then quickly provided the names.

The NTSB said on Thursday that Boeing had portrayed its investigation to media as a search to locate the individual responsible for the door plug work.

"The NTSB is instead focused on the probable cause of the accident, not placing blame on any individual or assessing liability," the agency said.

 

The criticism of Boeing came after Homendy said on Tuesday that railroad operator Norfolk Southern threatened the board, sought to manufacture evidence and failed to provide documents during its investigation of a 2023 Ohio derailment.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jason Neely and Jamie Freed)

[Malcolm]

 

Boeing to brief European regulators on new production plans after 737 MAX panel blowout

By Allison Lampert

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing is planning a briefing for high-level European regulatory officials about changes to the way it makes planes, a senior company executive said, after a January mid-air panel blowout sparked a safety crisis.

 

A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is assembled at the company's plant in Renton, Washington, U.S. June 25, 2024. Jennifer Buchanan/Pool via REUTERS© Thomson Reuters

Boeing has been under pressure over factory controls since Jan. 5, when a door plug tore off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet, in an incident blamed on missing bolts.

Elizabeth Lund, Boeing's senior vice president quality, said on Tuesday the planemaker has a briefing with the top level of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) coming up, with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) participating.

 

Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are assembled at the company’s plant in Renton, Washington, U.S. June 25, 2024. Jennifer Buchanan/Pool via REUTERS© Thomson Reuters

The company will do the same with other regulators.

"We will ensure they are fully aware of all the steps we are taking as we go through this," Lund told reporters during a visit to the company's 737 factory in Renton, Washington, a Seattle suburb.

EASA's acting head said in March the agency would suspend its indirect approval of Boeing's jet production if warranted, but added he felt reassured that the planemaker was tackling its latest safety crisis.

 

Under a transatlantic pact, the FAA and EASA regulate the factories of their respective planemakers - Boeing and Airbus - and recognise each other's safety approvals. That relationship has been tested in the aftermath of two fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

In February, the FAA told Boeing to develop a plan to address "systemic quality-control issues."

Boeing said it has increased investment in training, simplified work instructions and increased supplier oversight, after the Alaska Airlines MAX 9 jet made it to the end of the factory line with rivets that needed correcting.

 

Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are assembled at the company’s plant in Renton, Washington, U.S. June 25, 2024. Jennifer Buchanan/Pool via REUTERS© Thomson Reuters

Boeing has also introduced certain production milestones its planes will need to hit in order to advance to the next build position. The planemaker will consider mechanics' concerns if they believe the jet should be held back, said Jennifer Boland Masterson, a senior production director in the 737 program.

 

FILE PHOTO: A Boeing logo is seen on a 777-9 aircraft on display during the 54th International Paris Airshow at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 18, 2023. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo© Thomson Reuters

Lund said the Alaska Airlines door plug was opened without paperwork to fix the rivets, and the missing bolts were not replaced. The team that came in and closed the plug was not responsible for reinstalling the bolts, she said.

The accident, which led to an emergency landing, is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

 

Related video: Boeing irks U.S. watchdogs, but gets China boost (Reuters)

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The NTSB said early on Thursday it was sanctioning Boeing for disclosing non-public details of the ongoing investigation in the media briefing where Lund's comments were made and it was referring the planemaker's conduct to the Justice Department.

During the briefing, Lund said Boeing had "confidence that no other airplane was delivered like this based on the complete fleet check that we did," in reference to the Alaska Airlines jet.

Boeing is "willing and prepared" to obtain AS9100 certification, an internationally recognized aerospace standard for quality that the planemaker requires for its suppliers, she said. Boeing is already compliant with the standard and has been audited to the level as if it was certified, Lund added.

[Malcolm]

 

why not use the tug to direct the station into the sun?  Surely the experts could figure it out?

SpaceX will use $843M 'space tug' to down International Space Station (msn.com)

SpaceX will use $843M 'space tug' to down International Space Station©Provided by Daily Mail

It's been a home for astronauts for nearly 25 years, about 250 miles above the Earth's surface. But the International Space Station is due to be destroyed in 2030, and now NASA has firmed up its plans on how to do it.

[conehead]

55 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

 

why not use the tug to direct the station into the sun?  Surely the experts could figure it out?

That would require making the ISS speed up to achieve escape velocity from Earth gravity, using lots of energy ($$$). To bring it down, they simply need to slow it down, and it will fall into the atmosphere where most of it will (hopefully) burn up. 

[Malcolm]

12 minutes ago, conehead said:

That would require making the ISS speed up to achieve escape velocity from Earth gravity, using lots of energy ($$$). To bring it down, they simply need to slow it down, and it will fall into the atmosphere where most of it will (hopefully) burn up. 

That is akin to spreading garbage along side the road........

[conehead]

3 hours ago, Malcolm said:

That is akin to spreading garbage along side the road........

I don’t see how. Garbage doesn’t spontaneously combust in the ditch.

[Malcolm]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:48 PM, conehead said:

I don’t see how. Garbage doesn’t spontaneously combust in the ditch.

Nore does it come down and hit your home.  Re energy to transfer from earth orbit to one to the sun.  Well a number of countries have done the transition from earth orbit to lunar orbit..  

So not impossible nor beyond $$$$$

[Malcolm]

1 minute ago, Malcolm said:

Nore does it come down in hit your home.  Re energy to transfer from earth orbit to one to the sun.  Well a number of countries have done the transition from earth orbit to lunar orbit. to venus and even to the sun.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe Touches The Sun For The First Time

  Venus: Exploration - NASA Science

So not impossible nor beyond $$$$$

 

[J.O.]

18 hours ago, conehead said:

I don’t see how. Garbage doesn’t spontaneously combust in the ditch.

... the Elephant Hill wildfire enters the chat. Story goes that a shattered piece of glass magnified the sunlight and set off the paper bag it was in.

[conehead]

4 minutes ago, J.O. said:

... the Elephant Hill wildfire enters the chat. Story goes that a shattered piece of glass magnified the sunlight and set off the paper bag it was in.

If it was in a paper bag, then how did the sunlight hit it?

Never mind, I'm just being obtuse.

My point is, virtually all of the space junk will burn up when entering the atmosphere. It's not at all like throwing bags of garbage onto the ground. Yes, I know, there are occassions when some of it hits the ground in a populated area, but that's pretty rare.

Think of the task of launching a vehicle from Earth into Low-Earth-Orbit (where the ISS resides) and the fuel required to do that. Then the tug has to rendevous with ISS, latch onto it, and carry out another massive burn to escape Earth orbit. Yes, this is all feasable and we have the technology today to accomplish this. But... why bother, when it can be disposed of in a much more cost effective manner?

[deicer]

The most important thing is that with the tug can hopefully control the descent.  That way they can aim it for the Pacific or Atlantic where there is a lot of room with nothing to hit.

Think back to when Skylab was deorbited.  They just shut it down and let it's orbit decay.  They thought it would take 10 years for it to fall back to earth, but it happened in eight.  No control over the when and where, and luckily mostly into the Indian Ocean and some on Western Australia.

https://earthsky.org/space/skylab-was-americas-1st-space-station/

The final days and fall of Skylab

After the last crew returned to Earth, the ground crew ran a few more tests of the systems onboard. Primarily they were checking for equipment failures and how much systems had degraded over the time spent in space.

Eventually, Skylab was moved in to position for reentry and all its systems were shut down. Its orbit was expected to decay over about 10 years.

But only remained in a stable orbit for eight years and so came back to Earth earlier than expected.

And its fall to Earth was highly publicized! It was perhaps the first major fall of a satellite from orbit.

After much speculation about where Skylab would land – and whether it would damage people or things on the ground – Skylab finally crashed back to Earth on July 11, 1979. It caused big hunks of hardware to fall into the Indian Ocean and across Western Australia.

And, famously, it prompted the sparsely populated town of Esperance, in Western Australia, to fine NASA $400 for littering!

 

[deicer]

 

[Rich Pulman]

10 hours ago, conehead said:

Then the tug has to rendevous with ISS, latch onto it, and carry out another massive burn to escape Earth orbit.

Just imagine the effect of such a massive burn on our climate!

Edited Saturday at 01:53 AM by Rich Pulman

[conehead]

2 hours ago, Rich Pulman said:

Just imagine the effect of such a massive burn on our climate!

Are you serious?

[Malcolm]

First flight of Air Force One replacement delayed to 2026

By Ryan Finnerty17 June 2024

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The issue-plagued Boeing VC-25B programme to deliver two new presidential jets to the US Air Force (USAF) is absorbing fresh production delays that will push the type’s first flight into 2026.

The VC-25Bs are meant to replace the USAF’s two 747-200-based VC-25As now serving as Air Force One. Both those jets entered service in 1991.

Boeing in 2018 won a $3.9 billion contract with the USAF to deliver two VC-25Bs, which are heavily modified versions of 747-8 passenger jets. At the time, the new presidential aircraft were expected to enter service in December 2024.

That target subsequently slipped two years to 2026 after the programme was impacted by supply and labour disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside engineering challenges.

 

The programme timeline is changing again, and not in Boeing’s favour. The USAF now says first flight of the VC-25B will not occur until March 2026 – a 16 month revision. The news was reported by Breaking Defense on 14 June.

Air force officials say Boeing is still developing a revised programme schedule and those dates could be adjusted further.

Source: US Air Force

Two VC-25B presidential transport jets are planned to replace the current Boeing VC-24A model, known by its public call sign Air Force One when the president is aboard

Repeated delays and cost overruns on the programme have racked up massive financial penalties for Boeing. For example, the VC-25B accounted for $428 million of negative cash flow in a single quarter of 2023.

The airframer submitted an aggressive bid for the Air Force One replacement contract, but did so under a fixed-price agreement. Such deals lock suppliers into terms, precluding them from passing higher costs – which spiked during the pandemic – to the military.

 

“In a fixed-price environment, any hurdles can produce insurmountable costs,” Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun noted in 2023.

Boeing in recent years signed other fixed-price deals, including for development of the T-7A jet training. Such agreements have cost the company billions of dollars.

Boeing’s executive team has since promised to abandon the fixed-price approach, even going so far as walking away from a $13 billion opportunity to develop the Pentagon’s new fleet of nuclear command and control jets.

While Boeing expects better financial performance from the high-volume, single-engined T-7A fighter programme, Calhoun essentially wrote off the VC-25B as far back as October of 2022.

 

“We’re trying to assess these programmes with real clarity and realism, with respect to what we’re experiencing now,” said Calhoun at the time. “[We are] not projecting a significant improvement in the future.”

The low-volume nature of the VC-25B programme, combined with the complexity of assembling a transport and mobile command centre for the US president, make it unlikely the pre-pandemic VC-25B contract can become profitable for Boeing, Calhoun said.

Boeing lost $1.1 billion on Trump Air Force One contract; CEO regrets deal

PUBLISHED WED, APR 27 20222:25 PM EDTUPDATED WED, APR 27 20224:47 PM EDT

Dan Mangan@_DANMANGAN

Leslie Josephs@LESLIEJOSEPHS

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KEY POINTS

• Boeing has lost a total of $1.1 billion so far on costs associated with a deal to modify two 747 jumbo jets to serve as Air Force One.
• CEO Dave Calhoun said Boeing “probably shouldn’t have taken” risks from the deal for the planes, which was negotiated with then-President Donald Trump in 2018.
• Boeing reported a net loss of $1.2 billion for the first quarter of 2022, with a charge of $660 million associated with delays and higher costs for the Air Force One program.
• Boeing’s deal for Air Force One, which was cut by then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg requires the company, not the federal government, to eat the costs of any overruns on the contract.

In this article

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VIDEO03:23

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on earnings: It was a ‘messier quarter’ than what we would’ve liked

 

Boeing disclosed Wednesday that it has lost a whopping $1.1 billion in costs related to its deal with the Trump administration to modify two 747 jumbo jets to serve as Air Force One — and CEO Dave Calhoun admitted the aviation giant “probably” should not have cut the deal in the first place.

Even more losses on the Air Force One contract could be coming in future quarters, Boeing warned in a regulatory filing.

 

Air Force One is the official designation for any plane carrying the president of the United States.

“Air Force One I’m just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken,” Calhoun said on a call with analysts.

“But we are where we are, and we’re going to deliver great airplanes,” Calhoun said, shortly after Boeing reported a loss for the first quarter of 2022.

“And we’re going to recognize the costs associated with it.”

Boeing on Wednesday disclosed a net loss of $1.2 billion for the first quarter, with a charge of $660 million associated with delays and higher costs for the Air Force One program

Trump in 2018 bragged that “Boeing gave us a good deal. And we were able to take that.”

Four years ago, Boeing spoke favorably about the move.

“Boeing is proud to build the next generation of Air Force One, providing American Presidents with a flying White House at outstanding value to taxpayers,” it tweeted in February 2018. “President Trump negotiated a good deal on behalf of the American people.”

Trump also told CBS News that the planes would get rid of Air Force One’s traditional baby blue color scheme in favor of “red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate.”

“Air Force One is going to be incredible,” Trump said at the time. “It’s going to be top of the line, the top of the world.”

A month after being elected president in November 2016, Trump had griped on Twitter about the “out of control” costs of Boeing’s then deal to build a new Air Force One.

“Cancel order!” Trump tweeted at the time.

 

 

He later boasted that his negotiations with Muilenburg saved $1.5 billion for taxpayers.

Boeing fired Muilenburg as CEO in December 2019 for how he handled two crashes of the company’s 737 Max jets that killed 346 people.

He was denied a severance package, but received $60 million in pension benefits and company stock, Boeing said a month after he was ousted.

[Kip Powick]

 A Dutch roll can be caused by both wind and pilot input, but is nauseating for passengers in either circumstance

STORY TIME...part 1

I experienced , I think, a Dutch Roll, which was intitiated by my FO in a CV580. We were cruising at FL230 when, lets call him Ichabod Crane...a very tall and gangly fellow, decided he wanted to use the washroom and when sqirming out of his seat he inadvertently put on a poop-load of right rudder. 

The CV 580 has an interconnect between the ailerons and rudder due to the fact that when the Allison engines were glued to the wings the rudder had to be made a wee bit bigger so the pilot could offset some of the yaw  with the loss of an engine, and a requirement to make a turn.

When Icchabod stood up and slipped when exiting his seat the effect was a swing to the right, an uncoupling of the autopilot, slight right  bank and a slight skid to the left. Naturally my reaction was to get the aircraft back to  level flight so we rolled to the left and leveled the wings...no harm done but the apparently the pax were requesting an explanation. 

I told the Flight Steward to tell them that we just crossed the Jet Stream,  which was running about 100 miles per hour faster than anticipated and that the flight would be smooth the rest of the way.....(I doubted any of the VIPs knew anything about the atmosphere and a jet stream), and there were no further questions. 

part 2

There were two of us, (co-Captains), in Colorado Springs as pilots for the DCINC NORAD. We needed a third pilot who could fill in for either of us in the event we were ill or perhaps due for vacation. A young fellow who has just completed training on the CV580 was sent down to us and would act as FO if either of us could not make a flight. It was agreed upon that seeing I was a Check Pilot on the CV580 prior to Colorado Springs I would take him up for a check ride to check his proficency. 

A verbal briefing, (Q and A), was completed and we set off for the air work. It was his check ride, so he had the left seat. No problems with the taxi and take-off and we were going to fly about 30 miles south to a little airport and do a few instrument and visual approaches. We were passing about 5000 feet in the climb when he selected "autopilot on".

I asked him what he was doing.

He stated he wanted to fly down south using the auto pilot

I stated that in this particular aircraft we did not use the auto pilot unless the flight was in excess of 6 hours of flight time because of the unfortunate tendency of this particular CV580 to "Dutch-Roll" and the General did not like the fact that Dutch-Roll was not  comfortable in the VIP compartment.

He turned to the Flight Engineer, Jimmy,  and asked if that was true......good old Jimmy, said "That is a fact Sir"

((In actual fact I wanted to see how he handled that aircraft, (stick and rudder), and not use the auto pilot .......the reason I gave him for not using the autopilot was all pure BS....we used it most of the time))

Anyhow, he demonstrated that he was quite capable with the aircraft, including sudden loss of engine, engine fires, etc etc. 

The other pilot phoned me that night and asked how he did. I said he was quite capable and demonstated fairly good skills considering he just finished his training. The other fellow then said I should take the day off, tomorrow, as he was taking the General plus 7 to Ottawa and would be back in 2 days.

Apparently the other pilot gave the "newbee" the first leg...Colorado Springs to Ottawa. So they climbed to altitude, leveled and cruised for about 30 minutes until, finally, the Captain asked why he did not plug in the autopilot......

With a slight bead of sweat on his forehead, the FO told him what I said on the check ride......about no autopilot, and the flight to Ottawa was less than 6 hours  so no autopilot etc etc......Apparently . the Flight Engineer started to laugh and the Captain told the newbee he had been had.........

Truth being told..the night before .I forgot to tell the other pilot that I did  spoof the new fellow about the autopilot ..........so much fun...so little time...