Boeing is back, baby!

When Tinian moved from historical footnote to historical paragraph on Aug. 6, 1945, it was Boeing that helped put it there. The [I]Enola Gay[/I], a B-29 bomber, was, after all, a Boeing product.

Fast-forward through Commonwealth history, and Boeing’s jets have played a major role in the islands’ development. The CNMI is one of the top 10 coolest things in the world, and Boeing is on that list as well. Talk about a great team!

Many of you will remember when Air Mike’s Boeing 727s were providing island hopper service to parts of Micronesia, the Marshal Islands, and Hawaii. I went to the retirement ceremony of the last Air Mike 727 in Guam in, as I recall, the year 2000. It was sad to see such a great airliner being given the gold watch and retired from that route.

The 727 is, in fact, one of the coolest fly machines ever invented. It was a marvel in its day, when it first hit service in 1964. It’s still a marvel, and I have a little slice of my website devoted to this great aircraft.

Anyway, Air Mike used 737s to replace the 727s on the island-hopper route.

Boeing’s 737 has been one of the biggest financial home runs in the airline industry. Boeing has managed to keep the aircraft evolving with updated technology. I believe that this is the most produced airliner in history, and over six thousand of them will have hit the skies once Boeing fills its backlog of orders.

Meanwhile, the mighty 747 needs no introduction. These aircraft helped pave the tourism road for the Commonwealth, and they’re still going strong.

But Boeing itself didn’t seem to be going strong a couple of years ago. In certain international markets, they suffered from a reputation for arrogance, and they had really embarrassed themselves by unveiling a concept airplane called the “Sonic Cruiser” in 2001 that was, well, daft.

Indeed, it looked like Europe’s Airbus was eating Boeing’s lunch, and when the big double-decker Airbus A380 was unveiled, Boeing, already suffering from an image problem, lost what Public Relations guys call “the buzz.”

It was a painful thing to see, and I wrote about it here in early 2005.

But Airbus has some pain of its own, as it turns out. Infighting in executive ranks, combined with a seriously botched production schedule, took a lot of wind from the A380’s perceived viability in specific, and Airbus’ overall viability in general. It is likely, perhaps even probable, that European taxpayers will wind up footing much of the bill for a “white elephant” debacle.

One issue in this whole mess, incidentally, is divergent views of the future. Boeing thinks that smaller airliners are where the juice is, the better to offer point-to-point service for passengers. Airbus, by contrast, bet on its huge A380 as a super-hauler between super big hubs.

Anyway, Boeing has certainly bounced back, and is once again enjoying the best buzz in the industry. People at Boeing have told me that they are playing catch-up to fill a lush and lucrative series of airliner orders. Perhaps just as telling is the word on the street that Boeing is building some more production facilities to help keep pace with demand.

So: Boeing is back, baby. I’m glad to see it happen.

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“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice.” —Adam Smith