Impact of Boeing cut not just economic
By Gary Gentle
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — California's love affair with the car is rivaled only by its love affair with the airplane.
Associated Press
From 1910, when the first international air meet was held south of Los Angeles, to the 1947 flight of Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose," to the design of the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter, California has played a key role in world aviation history.
The factory where the Boeing 717 is built has long been a part of California's aviation history. Some fear that a decision to stop building the jet would mean not just more economic suffering but the pain of an emotional loss as well.
So a decision by the Boeing Co. to end production of its 717 passenger jetliner in Long Beach would have an impact far beyond a loss of 4,500 jobs. The Boeing 717 is the last passenger plane built in the state that produced one of the first, the historic DC-1 built by Douglas Aircraft in 1933 for TWA.
"Flight has been a central metaphor for Southern California," said state historian Kevin Starr. "It's part of the DNA code of Southern California economically."
Boeing inherited the 100-seater airplane program when it acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997. But the line has been a money loser, and Boeing said last month that it would decide by the end of the year whether to keep open the Long Beach factory that assembles it.
Closing the plant would not shut down California's aerospace industry itself. Boeing remains the state's largest private employer, and firms such as Northrop Grumman are hiring new workers in preparation to build the Joint Strike Fighter for the Pentagon.
California also remains a center of research and manufacturing for satellites, the space program and the military with such facilities as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works" research park in Palmdale and the high technology companies in the Silicon Valley.
And even if 717 production is halted, it might be years before the last jet leaves the production line. Midwest Express recently placed an order for 20 717s to be delivered one per quarter beginning in 2003. The contract also includes an option to order another 30 planes.
Still, ending production of the Boeing 717 would continue a decline in aerospace manufacturing, especially in Southern California that began nearly 30 years ago, according to Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at the Davenport Institute for Public Policy at Pepperdine University.
That decline reached a high point in the early 1990s when the Los Angeles area lost more than 200,000 jobs as defense spending was cut. Since then, the area has diversified its economy and is much less dependent on military spending.
On the commercial side, Lockheed in the early 1980s shut down the Burbank assembly line that produced the big L-1011 TriStar airliners.
At the 717 plant in Long Beach, production of commercial aircraft has been declining since Boeing's acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. Since 1997, production of the MD11, MD80 and MD90 has been gradually phased out with the last of the planes rolling off the assembly line earlier this year.
Today, most of the complex is shuttered, except for those used for final assembly of the Boeing 717.
Regional airlines use these planes for flights of 300 to 500 miles. However, Boeing announced earlier this year that it would eliminate 1,200 jobs in Long Beach because orders were lower than expected.
"It's a good aircraft and it's a hot segment, " said Joseph Nadol, an analysts at J.P. Morgan. "But demand hasn't materialized as quickly as the company needs."
Boeing officials in California say they are hoping to continue production. "Down here, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we can continue production and go on for years and years," said John Thom, a spokesman.
The Long Beach plant employs 4,500 on the commercial side.
During World War II, the complex was camouflaged, as were similar plants elsewhere, by placing a mock village on the roof. Such historical footnotes make the program's fate more poignant for Californians.
Jack Kyser, of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., put it like this: "It's like a death in the family."
