Opinion Editorial September, 2024: Boeing, Boeing, Bong
There's an old, famous saying from the commercial aviation industry: "If it ain't Boeing I ain't going." It captures well the confidence that airline passengers once had in that company. Eight hundred years ago, a few nomadic tribes in Mongolia probably had a similar confidence level regarding their own destiny. After all, they had just begun forming what remains historically the largest ever contiguous empire.
The Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight121 years ago. That is roughly how long the Mongol Empire lasted.
A week ago, NASA did not share the same confidence in Boeing. They made the right decision in having the Starliner space capsule return empty (which it is scheduled to do in five days). Then, only a few days later, SpaceX Falcon 9 launches were grounded following a mishap by that company. Although that grounding lasted only a few days, it is on top of a Falcon 9 rocket that the Crew Dragon space capsule will launch later this month to rescue the Starliner astronauts
The set back could not have come at a worse time for Boeing. Its commercial aircraft operation has suffered from multiple problems in the past few years. Most of those problems, like with the Starliner, have been related to safety.
The main point here is that nothing lasts forever — be it Boeing's reputation or the Mongol Empire. I took this month's photo in Mongolia. The two men are indigenous Kazakh. The Kazakh people would have been among the first to be conquered by the Mongol people. Eight hundred years later, in western Mongolia at least, they are once again adopting Mongol culture — in this case Mongolian wrestling.
Last month marked the third anniversary of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan (once also a part of the Mongol Empire). They celebrated by firing some of the country's security force for not growing a beard and by banning women from speaking in public. I can't imagine them lasting as long as the Mongol Empire.
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