The American Aircraft industry. Cessna is going to build business jets in China. The Chinese bought Continenital engines and Cirrus. The Chinese bought some Zenith aircraft kits (which come with complete plans so that they can copy them). The aviation industry was the flower of American prosperity, now the Chinese will take it. http://www.usatoday.com/money/indus...2-03-23/cessna-joint-venture-china/53732610/1
Cessna or any US Firm, could build a factory and start production in China, in the time it takes permit a remodeling program which could start in 5 years in the US, I'm sorry to say. Reading the 'remarks' from your link, UNIONS played a roll in their decisions, but I'd bet they were having trouble competing in the International Markets and of course China is a large portion of that market...I'd probably do the same.
If China wants to take on the airline industry, more power to them. However, it will be very difficult for them to match our standards in terms of maintenance. The FAA is the gold standard for safety in the airline industry, so China can build planes however it likes, but it's going to have some difficulties in keeping up a good record for safety if it expands further in the airline service business.
for the past decade there are very few aircraft incident in china. so maintenance is not an issue here.
My brother works in the industry, and what he's seen and heard has not been good with Chinese maintenance. We employ much stricter standards than them. It's to the point that a lot of the world uses our standards as a role model. We still seem to be pioneers in that field in general.
Serfin, I agree with you. I have more than a passing experience in aircraft manufacture and maintenance. My concern is that the safety standards and procedures we work to are designed to be implemented and adhered to by people of European descent with a Judeo Christian mindset. There is no room for Asian or Middle Eastern "Ambivalence". Our safety systems are not designed with Five layers of quality control to catch someone taking shortcuts to save a few pennies. To put that another way; when the maintenance manual or manufacturing procedure says: "do it this way", then that is exactly the way it has to be done. There is no "maybe" or "Perhaps". And once the task is complete, I sign my name on the certification and write my ARN (aviation reference number) on it to signify that the task is correct to the best of my ability. We already have experience here of Asian shortcuts. It's not good.
Some of it probably is cultural, but I think, over time, any culture can conform to a strict standard if it really wants to (assuming the people involved have the proper education and training). Maybe the education/training aspect is the heart of the issue (in addition to cultural idiosyncrasies).
My reaction to this news depends entirely on whether the American Cessna employees are unionized. If Cessna is not unionized this news is terrible. If Cessna is unionized this weakens the American left.
I used to think the nuclear industry worked like you describe. Then I worked at a nuclear power plant and learned that ALL of the "5 layers of safety" fairy tale was just a bunch of malarkey. If you want to be cultural about it, I would trade the ENTIRE USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission and EVERY safety engineer in the USA for ONE German trade school union technician putting a reactor together. And I would live on TOP of that reactor, whereas now, 50 miles is certainly my nearest limit for owning property. And I am willing to bet the Aircraft business is a lot the same.
Ah......is that why so many US aircraft fall out of the sky? was this your great maintainance or just another drunk and drugged US soldier in charge of a lethal weapon ? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDOCh6QWQm8"]AH-64 Apache Helicopter Crashes in Afghanistan - YouTube[/ame]
Yes..... Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2010/09/15/1494232/union-recommends-cessna-workers.html#storylink=cpy
i'm sure we have higher standard than them. but i'm simply point out the accident rate in china over the past decade. they have almost as much as flight/day as we have. so if they lack any standard, then i would think there would be more incident
You mean the same German engineering that designs a car that technically runs great, but breaks down on a yearly basis and costs ridiculous amounts to fix compared to Japanese or even American counterparts? Ever own a BMW, VW or Mercedes? Fun to drive, yet have ^$&#$*# service records. German engineering is fantastic, no doubt, but their "stuff" doesn't hold up very well. As for China, they're known for cheap crap that has a shelf life of close to nothing. They care little for regulations or public safety. Just look up the Chinese drywall fiasco or what we find in children's toys built over there. Besides, safety records of any kind coming out of China can be taken with a grain of salt. The govt controls all info coming out of there, so its manipulated horribly.
How did this topic become reduced to 'who has the higher aircraft standards' Obviously whoever builds aircrafts will maintain safety or they have no customers. It will be interesting to view and even travel in the new chinese planes. I wonder what technology they are going with. The supersonic or giant bus approach.
We have lots of Cessnas, not selling them ALL to china, and Cessnas are not the "Last Thing" we have.
