We've spent a fair amount of time and column space here in 2024 covering stories about Boeing, and nearly all of them have involved bad news of one type or another. Bad news for Boeing, bad news for the flying public, and most recently, bad news for NASA's astronauts. But this week, Boeing announced some good news for a change. Or at least it's good news for them. Despite all of the problems Boeing has experienced and all of the questions that have been raised about their production methods and quality control, the United States government has awarded a contract worth more than $2.5 billion to Boeing to build more planes for the Air Force. As the old saying goes, what could possibly go wrong? (Gateway Pundit)

Boeing has announced that it has been awarded a $2.56 billion dollar contract from the U.S. Air Force to manufacture E-7A AEW&C Wedgetail aircraft. This is despite the company coming under fire in recent years due to the lack of quality production and oversight that has led to multiple tragedies with their aircrafts.

The head-scratching announcement comes against the backdrop of Boeing’s troubled recent history, which have embroiled the company in numerous controversies casting doubt on its ability to deliver reliable and safe aircraft.

One of the notable issues has been with Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, which faced two catastrophic crashes in 2018 and 2019. These crashes resulted in the tragic loss of over 300 lives and highlighted the significant lapses in both design and oversight.

This contract doesn't involve commercial jets. Boeing will be building more E-7A AEW&C Wedgetails for the Air Force. The Wedgetail is a twin-engine airborne early warning and control aircraft. You can read about all of the specifications and see photos of the planes here. The good news is that Boeing has been producing these aircraft for the military since 2009, and on a quick search, I wasn't able to find any reports of them falling out of the sky for no apparent reason or having their wheels fall off during takeoff or landing. So they seem to be fairly reliable.

But the story is a bit more complicated than that. The Wedgetail is still based on Boeing's 737 design. Since it performs airborne surveillance, there is a lot more that goes into one of these planes and they are more complicated than the 737 MAX passenger jet. And while we never want to see anyone die in a crash if it can be avoided, planes that will potentially be sent into a combat zone need to be particularly reliable.

Further, these won't be exactly the same E-7s that Boeing has been producing for the military in the past. As The Aviationist reported last night, these new Wedgetails are part of a "rapid prototype program" that was launched last year. Now that the prototype work has been approved, the Air Force has ordered the first two planes of the series. In other words, the Air Force will be sailing into uncharted territory with these planes just as Boeing's production methods and inspection programs are being scrutinized. Some of the earliest Wedgetails were built in Seattle, with the rest being rolled out by Boeing's Australia facilities. We haven't really heard any horror stories coming out of their Australian plant, but that may not mean all that much.

We're still dealing with the same problem with these military deliveries as we are with commercial airlines, however. If you want really large planes for any purpose, Boeing and Airbus are pretty much the only two games in town. And Airbus is already swamped with orders. To get another airline manufacturer up and running with the ability to safely produce aircraft of that size in any usable quantities would likely take decades at a minimum. Boeing no doubt knows this and they are able to just bide their time and issue the occasional apology when things go south, along with paying some fines. They know that the government can't hit them with anything too damaging that might put them out of business because the societal impacts would be too intense. So at least for the time being, things are unlikely to change.