> The space agency will now judge how the Starliner could be eventually certified to fly
Methinks this will require firing all Boeing management, and taking it private :)
replies(2):
Methinks this will require firing all Boeing management, and taking it private :)
The market is also not as big as you'd think.
It's a critical long lead-time, institutional industry, for a nation. But a moneymaker, it's not.
(Even Airbus, if I'm reading it right, is at a USD$120b market cap)
Boeing is the third largest aircraft manufacturer in the world (behind Airbus and Lockheed), has been in an ongoing crisis for 6 years over the quality of an airplane that was rushed out of the door to react to Airbus's A320neo, is looking to sell ULA which is most of their space launch business, with few success stories about the remaining space-related products under the Boeing brand (like Starliner or SLS). And their defense arm has a decade of stagnating revenue (on the same level as their 2002 revenue).
Everything at SpaceX is pointing to growth, while Boeing's only saving grace is that customer lock-in, their size and importance to national interests (and national security) is slowing their fall.
This is also suggesting to me that commercial aviation isn't going to be seeing that much advancement going forward, rather than incremental changes at a decelerating rate. Strong headwinds, say from the energy transition, may actually shrink it a lot.