787 problems: Outsourcing gets Grounded
The Boeing Dreamliner was supposed to be a lot of things: fuel efficient, quiet, comfortable.
It was also supposed to be an example of how flat the world has gotten, with Boeing sourcing the nuts and bolts of the flying piece of fiberglass from across the world, American workers be damned.
But it's hard to see the FAA's decision yesterday to ground every 787 in the nation as anything but a serious blow to that notion, if not a full on indictment.
As Bloomberg noted in a profile of the 787 in 2011:
The 787 is not merely a historic feat of engineering. The program also marks Boeing's departure from its own time-honored manufacturing practices. Instead of drawing primarily from its traditional pool of aircraft engineers, mechanics and laborers that runs generations deep in the Puget Sound region around Seattle, Boeing leads an international team of suppliers and engineers from the United States, Japan, Italy, Australia, France and elsewhere, who make components that Boeing workers in the United States put together.
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on All Nippon Airways, after American dropped the route seven years ago.
ANA flew the route with Dreamliners. For four days. The delegation from San Jose that went to Tokyo on the inaugural flight, including the head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, is stranded over there. 
