In contrast, Musk is a very smart, driven oddball who dominates Space-X and has a vision and team that emphasize engineering advances, experimental effort, and robust quality in the final production model. Musk knows that his high wire act requires progress and tends to a damn the cost, get it done frame of mind that is alien to the culture of Boeing and other large American manufacturers. Who knows though, but public embarassment and the marketplace may eventually lead Boeing back to fundamentals. If not, they will soon burn through the advantages of size and reputation.
Absolutely. Does anyone think that a young smart engineer at Boeing would be able to walk up to the Boeing CEO and say “hey I think new technique this will work.” Of course not. But at SpaceX this is a daily occurrence. I just hope Musk is able to keep it this way for the foreseeable future. At some point, Tesla and SpaceX will probably go the same route as Boeing.
I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess, Musk sketches out a system, throws a bunch of crap together in a lab, gets the crap working, and then goes through the engineering behind it...whereas Boeing specifies the crap out of stuff, convinces themselves that it should work fine, then flubs the testing because they failed to specify one or two critical characteristics...and so has to, essentially, start over...and over...and over.
You read all the books and learn all the math you want, but you will not get an HVAC License, a Plumbing License, an Electrician License, or an Aircraft Mechanic License without having gotten your hands dirty for an extended period of time. There’s a reason for that...
It’s worse than that...
starting in the early 2000’s, companies began to uncerimoniously dump senior engineers.
The senior engineers were the mentors of the next generation of engineers, relaying their experience as to what works and what does not work. Many times what looks good on paper is a disaster in practice. The current class did not receive this mentoring.
What I was observing before I retired was the new class going down into the archives and pulling prints for things that had long ago been discarded. These new engineers, lacking the mentoring, put this old crap back into production.
What we are seeing today is a lack of vision due to having to muddle around on their own without the support of the “old guys” that knew what looks good on paper does not always work.
These decisions were not made by the engineers. These decisions to cut the senior staff was made by beancounters who have no skin in the game.