Nuts & Bolts

(Nuts & Bolts)

On April 18th, 1942, the Doolittle Raid took place. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel, took 16 B-25 Michell medium bombers, had them loaded aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Hornet, which cruised to within striking distance of Tokyo. This was a desperate mission, launched mere months after Pearl Harbor. But President Roosevelt wanted a strike against the Japanese Empire is soon as one could be assembled. Doolittle had been an Aviaton pioneer of sorts, holding several speed records. He took his crews to what is today, Eglin Air Force base and gave training on short take-offs. Deck space on the Hornet would necessarily be limited. All sixteen planes were able to lift off the Hornet and bombed Tokyo successfully, though actual damage to the Japanese Capitol was limited. Most of Doolittle's bombers had to cash land but many of the crews themselves survived and, with Chinese help, were able to return to friendly territory.

In order for those B-25's (a product of North Amercian) to accomplish the attack, the aircraft had to be well maintained. The two engines, the control surfaces all had to meet the requirements of a "Doolittle raid." Had any of the systems been sub-par, any number of failures could have ensued, perhaps threatening the success of the attack. Like North American, two other firms, Consolidated, which built the B-24 Liberator, and of course, Boeing, that built both the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress. During the Cold War, it was Boeing that built the B-52 Stratofortress.

Boeing was also at the forefront of commercial aviation as well, a line of passenger planes from the Boeing 707 to the 787 Dreamliner. Sadly, this venerable airplane company has fallen on controversial times. Various quality control issues have emerged in recent years. One plane, the 737MAX had to be grounded for a number of months. There have also been in-flight incidents, a door blowing out, a wheel dropping off, and an engine cowling that came loose. All these occurrences, while non-fatal, did force an immediate landing and the prospect that Boeing is looking at serious quality control issues.

In fact, things have gotten sufficiently bad for certain Boeing executives, so-called "whistleblowers," to go before the Senate and explain the company's problems. One individual who had warnings about Boeing has committed suicide. What could have gone wrong ? The answer, and there are several, perhaps began when Boeing took over rival McDonnell Douglas. Then, Boeing was not only responsible for its own product line, it had to manufacture MD planes as well.

Perhaps more insidious is Boeing's new-found appreciation for the DEI construct. Employees had to start using "approportionate" pronouns. The lunacy that one is seeing at Columbia and other universities in support of Hamas and anti-Israel at some point infected the Boeing board Room.

Fortunately, the company is taking steps to "right the ship," even though it builds airplanes.