I suspect this is one reason why the 787 is experiencing such delays. Boeing outsourced most of the work to foreign countries and no doubt gave them colonial specifications for the manufacture - specs they do NOT use and would have to specially and exceptionally gear up for.
Despite their whining over the tanker contract, by the way, many Boeing planes have more foreign manufacture than some Airbuses. The only real difference is where is the headquarters of the company - both are assemblers. Carleton -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Palumbo Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 09:54 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40537] Airbus vs. Boeing as it relates to metrication. With the recent debacle of Airbus winning out the US Air Force refueller contract over Boeing, I couldn't help but notice the military purchasers were defending their decision by talking about enormous cost savings. It dawned on me that the Airbus model would be entirely metric, making it easier to be assembled all over the world, and easier to be repaired all over the world. Surely that's a cost savings over Boeing. When I mentioned this to my friend Greg, a former engineer for Boeing, he shared the following tidbit with me: "That metric argument is interesting, though. In early 1999 while working for Boeing I went to China for three months to help teach a Chinese company how to perform a certain major structural modification to 747's. One of the biggest, and most unanticipated problems was teaching them how to work non-metric. It's not just a problem with tooling, either, all the sheet metal on the aircraft is in non-metric thicknesses. Sheet metal is purchased from vendors by the company that is working on the aircraft, so the Chinese company would either have to purchase non-metric sheet metal from a U.S. company or spend the big bucks to get some other non-U.S. company to manufacture the stuff." That seems like a horribly inefficient way to go about repairs, and it's no wonder to me that Boeing had numerous issues with expensive repair costs outside of the US, particularly in southeast Asia. If the Airbus contract stays (Boeing is protesting), then there will be a new assembly plant in Alabama using nothing but metric for these planes. Regards, Mike
