Can Boeing build aeroplanes that fly?
“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”, a 2008 animated comedy film, centres around a bunch of talented penguins that tinker together a rickety aeroplane from haphazard spares to be launched by a slingshot over the canopy of the African jungle. The penguins’ engineering reputation is thoroughly tested when the plane comes apart. I always have to think of head commander penguin Kowalski and his crew when yet another setback is reported from the 100-year-old, US aeroplane maker Boeing.
The penguins and their fellow zoo animals survive, of course. Sadly this could not be said of the 346 passengers who died in two crashes of the now infamous 737 Max in the Philippines in October 2018 and Ethiopia in March 2019. Design flaws of the upgraded “same plane but better” 737 – long denied until the US Federal Aviation Authority had to withdraw its licence – proved fatal. When I reported in 2019 about the aircraft “designed by clowns who are supervised by monkeys” (Boeing engineer in an internal memo) I wondered not only if the Max would ever fly again, but also how the Chicago-based blue chip company can survive ever-mounting losses, caused by production halts, supply chain disruptions, compensation...