The Discouragement Factor - What John Galt REALLY looks like ..THE 787

This morning across, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC, CNBC, CBS, the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune (I stopped after that) one can read about the travails of the peak of technological development of the largest exporter, of the largest export industry the USA has left… BOEING.

Dec. 4, 2012: A power panel in the aft electrical equipment bay prompted an emergency landing in New Orleans by a United fight.

Dec. 5, 2012: The FAA orders inspections of Dreamliners to make sure that fuel-line connectors have been installed correctly.

Dec. 13, 2012: A Qatar Airways Dreamliner is grounded with similar issues to the United flight.

Jan. 7: An electrical fire in the same electrical bay of a parked 787 Dreamliner after a Japan Airlines flight.

Jan. 8: A Japan Airlines Dreamliner headed to Tokyo canceled takeoff in Boston due to a fuel leak.

Jan. 8: United found improperly installed wiring in the aft-electrical equipment bay of one of its Dreamliners.

WSJ:

Boeing Co.’s BA -2.70% flagship Dreamliner jet, plagued by years of production delays before getting off the ground, hit fresh trouble Tuesday as air-safety officials opened a formal probe into a fire that broke out on an empty plane, and another airline discovered wiring problems in one of its 787s.

Also Tuesday, a Japan Airlines Co. 9201.TO -0.40% 787 preparing to take off for Tokyo from Boston was forced to return to the airport gate because of a fuel leak. The plane that caught fire Monday was a separate JAL 787, also in Boston.

The National Transportation Safety Board probe into Monday’s fire is the most serious setback to the multibillion-dollar 787 program since Boeing delivered the first jet to launch customer All Nippon Airways Co. 9202.TO -0.55% in September 2011, more than three years behind schedule following a succession of design and production woes.

The NTSB said its examination so far of Monday’s fire aboard a Dreamliner parked at Boston’s Logan International Airport showed the battery for the aircraft’s auxiliary power system suffered “severe fire damage.”

Meanwhile, United Airlines, a unit ofUnited Continental HoldingsInc.,UAL -0.19%found improperly installed wiring on one of its six 787s, according to a person with knowledge of the carrier’s actions.

Boeing has said it is working with JAL after Monday’s incident, but didn’t respond to a request for comment about the issue discovered at United.

Boeing had delivered 49 Dreamliners to eight airlines by the end of 2012, including 46 last year, and has outstanding orders for another 799 from most of the world’s major airlines and leasing companies

It is Boeing which was cited and stopped from moving production to non union South Carolina from unionized Washington state after YEARS AND YEARS of strikes halted production and development across the board.

“We would argue that Boeing’s statements are truthful statements of economic realities. Customers don’t want production delays caused by strikes.”

“A company can certainly establish new facilities in other locations,” he added.

It is Boeing which produced the F-15’s (as acquired McDonnell-Douglas), and the F-4B Phantom II, both used worlwide. It was Boeing which designed, invented, and produced on it’s own nickel the 747 which STILL fills the skies, and the 737 which has evolved from a short haul jet to a 2 engine transcontinental jet (as the 737-800).

The 787, a 2 engined jet, which is designed to haul a full planeload non stop from Boston to Tokyo (as the one which had the fuel leak was supposed to do) requires millions of parts, and millions of lines of computer code to operate.

As more money had flowed to taxes amid increasing uncertainty …what has been cut back? As more taxes for success among the engineers becomes more limiting, who will work those 60-70 hours when the result is to send more of that work in terms of earned income to others they don’t even know? And if they are compelled to, will they just be putting in the hours?

A strike by producers is not necessary to destroy this nation.

This will happen across the board.

Medical devices.

Autos.

Power producing equipment.

Failures will occur and stocks will be hit, shrinking confidence and investments, which will shrink R&D, engineering and QA. Profits will be wrung out of already safe production instead of new things.

Boeing shares sank 3.6% Tuesday following a pair of incidents involving its new 787 Dreamliner

And they will say, ‘oh this is just teething’.

No, not after 2+ years of flying it isn't.

But what’s wrong is not with Boeing. It’s IN Boeing, in Lockheed, in General Dynamics, in Electric Boat, in Abbott, in GM, Pfizer, and Merck, in Caterpillar and John Deere, and Archer Daniels Midland. It’s what causes those with ideas and springing with efforts and ambition to halt for just that moment, and think twice, and then three times. And wait, then see it all dulled in the daily grind.

Hope is what is eroded, and it is expressed in the 787, and THAT is what John Galt has birthed quietly and malignantly in the USA