2012-10-21 by Robbin Laird
Norm Dicks known in Washington state and national politics as Mr. Boeing spared nothing in attacking Northrop Grumman or EADS in derailing the preferred position of the USAF.
Even though Boeing hardly had a stable of veterans in building tankers, Dicks frequently asserted the historic experience of Boeing as if it were an operational reality.
To distinguish Boeing from EADS, Dicks once commented:
“We’ve got experienced people who can do this job. Down in Alabama, they’ve got an empty field with no workers.”
Recently while visiting the Gulf Coast, I was looking at the “empty field” on which Airbus will build a final assembly facility for the A-320, and a Boeing product showed up looking at the field and taking off and landing from the field.
A Bell-Boeing Osprey was spotted in Air Force markings checking things out.
Presumably, Airbus is not building the facility underground, so it appears still to be an empty field.