787 battery fires: NOT caused by batteries

[PJ_Godzilla]

Only an American would think that a corporation pays taxes to begin. But there is still a rub. Corporations exist to make a profit. Taxation is a cost. It gets passed on. As hajo notes -this becomes a competitiveness issue since structural costs matter.

Sys error makes a reasonable point, but corporate subs are far from uniform across sectors and only serve to offset very selectively. In any case, it would be radically easier to restructure and simplify the subs and reduce the rates, but, of course, this defeats the purpose. After all, every applicable subsidy had its origin in lobbying and selection, and the federal machine loves redistribution because it gets house rake on every dollar routed.

I won't speak for FoMoCo. I will say that ( from my perspective) it appears to make its decisions comprehensively of all available credible info. The last decade of restructuring of the UAW deals speaks for itself.

As for the U.S., if you really think it's doing well in the global competition to attract capital, you must be living under a mushroom. No production will ultimately equal no wealth, and I say that recognizing that the most valuable production is intellectual ( although export of smokestack capital bears genuine geopolitical risk -history being any guide).

In any case, I've got my own pretty thing covered, which is all any of us can do.

[Patches1]

By the way, just confirmed lines 1-169 were all made in Everett. Some line number after that (Made in BSC) had traveled work items that had to be completed up here after Final Assembly so in essence the quality wasn't 'fixed' by Everett aerospace workers but rather "completed" because at the time BSC was not ready for prime time.

I was told this in a meeting yesterday by a ME who works on the shop floor.

Well, shucks! I think we have to agree that Everett assembled and reworked what was sent to its factories because Everett did not produce (make) any (and if it did, very little) of the 787. The Everett plant is an assembly plant for the 787, with the parts from around the world being shipped there for assembly, and if your line numbers are correct, then, yes, Everett had to rework all of those line numbers from all of the other manufacturers.

Your terms, "fixed", and "completed", when referenced to "quality", really don't mean the same thing. If the parts arriving in Everett to be assembled were "completed with quality", then Everett would not have had to "fix" them, but rather, simply "assemble" them, and this was not the case. Everett had to rework (fix) the parts to quality standards before they would fit together and make an airplane. How do I know? Like you, Ripsnort, I had many friends and co-workers with whom I had worked for decades on the 747, 767, 777, programs who were drafted to the 787 program (Engineers and Aircraft Mechanics, and Jig Builders) who all stated how sad they were to be on the 787 Program.

Don't misunderstand me; I think the 787 is a good aircraft, and like any new aircraft program it has teething problems. But the 787's teething problems began at it's beginning with poor management and because of poor management, quality control suffered, and that has haunted the program ever since. And, when these flaws are coupled with the new Boeing Management System, the flaws are not likely to be identified and solved as quickly as they were prior to the merger of Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas.

[SNO]

So after reading this thread and going to fly, do not fly on a Boeing 787?

[Busher]

So after reading this thread and going to fly, do not fly on a Boeing 787?

Take what you want from this, but from someone who lived in the industry for 36+ years;

They're all junk these days! Their respective MEL's are as thick as a phone directory and hence they dispatch with reasonable regularity.