I can say that Boeing is somewhat reversing its stance on outsourcing, even investing in additions on some of its U.S. manufacturing plants and of course, building new ones, although in non-union states.

But make no mistake. The overall trend will not end. What the article fails to mention is BoeingÆs largest customers are foreign customers, with U.S. airlines having all but collapsed. And in most major customer nations, the government is integrated into the airline business as well as most other businesses of those nations. Therefore, to convince foreign airlines to purchase Boeing airplanes, instead of Airbus airplanes, Boeing has to curry favor with the governments of those nations. And that most often takes place by giving technology and jobs to them.

So how does Airbus sell airplanes. They also give away some manufacturing, but on a more limited basis. Airbus has more direct ties to the government of the EU and those ties can involve giving different kinds of benefits to foreign countries than Boeing would be able too, such as preferential treatment to airlines who fly to Europe and buy Airbus products.

This is why outsourcing will never end at Boeing. The only lesson they learned was not that outsourcing was a failure, but simply that they did it wrong. Too much, too fast. They wonÆt make that mistake again, but they wonÆt stop either.

IMO, Eventually Boeing airplanes wonÆt even be assembled here, much less have the parts made here. But that timeline has definitely be postponed by a few more years.