According to the Associated Press, Washington State is trying to diversify its aircraft economy by persuading Airbus to begin manufacturing its aircraft in Washington State, while retaining Boeing operations in Washington. (You will recall that Boeing Headquarters was moved to Chicago, and that Airbus HQ (US division) is in Virginia.)
Which design technology will ultimately prevail? Boeing outsourced major components of its 787 "dream-liner" from overseas countries. Boeing has had difficulty making components fit., a result primarily of the yo-yo from inches to millimeters and back to inches, accompanied by the accumulation or rounding errors, in my opinion. A similar objection to "dual units of measurement" appears in the Handbook for Aerospace Nondestructive Testing. currently being developed by Boeing and the NSNT. Although measured values and estimates in SI are presented in first place, the presence of units outside the SI can not be discarded easily from this Handbook. A third objection to "duality" is in elementary and secondary education in the USA, where metric unit and units outside the SI are taught as though they are of equal value, and conversions of units rather than metric-only units are the focus of instruction. Eugene Mechtly
