Bush-appointee and rising star D. Hersman of NTSB will have a press
conference Thursday at 11 am EST.

|
| Engineering has been de-emphasized at Boeing so much that
| it's beginning to scare investors, according to Richard
| Aboulafia, the oft-quoted Teal Group aerospace analyst, who
| some have suggested has had a subtle pro-Boeing bias.
|
| Not this month.
| ...
| In his piece, Aboulafia criticized Boeing's stance at its
| Jan. 30 fourth quarter earnings call for a lack of
| "contrition or soul-searching."
|
| Instead, he wrote, it was like, "A farmer showing off a
| great crop but not mentioning that the tractor just broke,
| he fired the mechanic, and outsourced tractor maintenance
| to Bolivia."
|
| Aboulafia listed as problems last year's replacement of
| Boeing Commercial Airplanes' former CEO Jim Albaugh (who
| was an engineer), Boeing's current contract struggle with
| its engineers' union (which he said is partly the union's
| fault), and the Dreamliner's battery issue (which he said
| carried a "strong chance" the plane will require a
| six-to-nine-month grounding for re-certification.)
| ...
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2013/02/06/analyst-aboulafia-warns-boeings.html

--bks