"What About Aeroplanes"

A valid question from Carbon Leaf's What About Everything. Well, here are a couple articles that go towards answering it:

• Boeing changes way planes are made with 787 (MSNBC): An interesting article primarily about how Boeing is outsourcing much of the production of its much anticipated 787 Dreamliner. Bonus: it quotes a union president regarding the issue of Seattle based workers doing extra work on the initial Dreamliner due to supplier issues, "We need to be ready and available to pick up that slack and show them we can do it better than the supplier, and our hope is then that we can draw that work back." Note that the union president recognizes that his union needs to be more competitive in order to win back market share (rather than trying to distort the market by legislation or other non-market means).

• The Real Owner of All Those Planes (New York Times): An interesting article about Steven Udvar-Hazy (after whom the National Air and Space Annex at Dulles International Airport is named) who founded and co-owns International Lease Finance Corporation and is, as a result, one of the 100 richest Americans. In a nut shell, he owns an enormous number of planes and leases them to the major airlines who don't have enough cash flow to buy them outright. It's a fascinating article even if you couldn't care less: "'Not to put too fine a point on it, but in our industry, Steve Hazy is God,' said Edmund S. Greenslet, editor of AirlineMonitor.com."