The Decay of Boeing
The aircraft manufacturer is the flagship company of U.S. airpower and aerospace. Succession failure in engineering and on the factory floor now threatens its functionality.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0873bb01-d5e8-44b0-ba58-fe42f7f3e7d3_1600x976.jpeg)
The U.S. company Boeing is one of only two aircraft manufacturers in the world currently capable of building the largest types of civilian aircraft, wide-body “jumbo jets” that can accommodate hundreds of passengers for long-haul flights over 10,000 km. The other is the European consortium Airbus, which is Boeing’s only real commercial competitor. In 2023, Airbus delivered 735 aircraft and currently has a backlog of 8598 planes, while Boeing has fallen behind, manufacturing 528 jets with a backlog of 6189.1 Over the last two decades, Airbus has slowly overtaken Boeing in commercial aircraft manufacturing. Although Boeing is also a major defense contractor, about 60% of its total revenue of roughly $78 billion comes from commercial business.2 Boeing today has a market capitalization of about $100 billion.3 In late 2018 and early 2019, two of Boeing’s new jetliners fatally crashed, killing a combined 346 people. Since January 2024, Boeing planes have experienced a series of near-catastrophic incidents that have garnered popular attention and regulatory concern, including an “equipment failure” that caused a temporary mid-air nosedive injuring over fifty people.4