OK Randy, Now I'm Really Confused.

Randy's blog has an interesting piece on the end of the Douglas run in Long Beach and it'd probably bring tears to your eyes if you didn't know the history and weren't paying attention. The trash truck clipart seems appropriate here.

It's also a homily on what The Prussian Airplane Company values and what they're willing to throw in the dumpster, if anyone's looking.

I can almost hear you saying "What ever is that Dougloid feller going ON about?"

Friends, before we get all weepy about the End of Life As We Knew It in Long Beach please study Bloomberg today. It is reported that the aforementioned bunch of folks who are getting all maudlin about the end of Douglas are getting ready to spend $27 billion USD in the next thirty years in..........Russia. Airbus, not to be outdone, is ready to sink $25 billion in Russia over the same period.

Russia, for Christ's sake, when Boeing had (and Airbus missed their chance to acquire), in their hands, in Long Beach, in the United States, an asset at the center of a vast network of fabrication shops and the tribal knowledge of literally thousands of engineers, tin benders, wrench turners, paint sprayers, rivet bashers, and parts chasers-all of whom felt it was quite a feather in their cap to say down at the cafe "Yes. We're Douglas people from way back, ever since Dad came out here from Nebraska during the war."

OK, OK, I know that a lot of that is going to go for titanium, whether it's fabricated or billet, so you can discount those figures some. But they're planning to acquire engineering and expertise when they just got done tossing the same thing in the dumpster.

So....Randy, pardon my bereavement fatigue and my skepticism over this (and the Douglas Park swill from the Boeing Realty Company, about which I have written previously).

If anyone ever finds the Douglas globe, for heaven's sake turn it over to some people who aren't planning to sell it for scrap metal.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/272306_boeingrussia01.html