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Lovely Sunday! Thanks for letting us 'bite' your inbox once more (ew ew cheap joke).

This week, we're diving into aviation, aiming to understand how aircraft manufacturers and contractors collaborate. Amidst this exploration, we're also examining recent incidents involving Boeing.

In our second interview, we'll chat with 'RK,' a trusted subscriber and friend. RK, a former commercial pilot and Air Force veteran, now works with a Boeing company.

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Interview with an Aviation expert

We wanted to get some unique knowledge around relationships between aircraft manufacturers and the contractors they use for building parts. Specifically, we were trying to understand “chain of custody” stuff that might lead to debacles like the ones Boeing is dealing with right now.

This is from an email conversations. Answers are unedited, and we’ve bolded parts that stood out to us.

What is the nature of the relationship between airlines and contractors? What are some "usual parts" the contractor provides vs. the plane building them in-house?

Both Boeing and Airbus rely heavily on subcontractors for a wide range of parts, many of them major components of the aircraft (wings, fuselages, etc.). There can be a bit of a conflation here between a "subcontractor" and a "partner company," but it's sort of a distinction without a difference-- much of these airplanes are not manufactured "in-house," although assembly is largely in-house.

But one important distinction is that Airbus has traditionally had a "closer" relationship with its subcontractors (read: tighter control). Boeing has not, although recent events may cause this to change (there have been talks of Boeing looking to acquire the subcontractor responsible for the door plug incident in order to make oversight easier).

What are the 2 most important roles of the FAA? Do they oversee the airline AND those contractors?

This is going to change depending on the entity they are overseeing... for airlines, they will be more operations-focused. Subcontractors, more quality-control/parts-certification focused. For aircraft manufacturers, they will have many oversight roles-- but it's become apparent that the FAA deferring some of those roles to Boeing itself has become a problem.

What are the 2-3 biggest factors that are contributing to these Boeing parts failures?

In the case of the door plug, it wasn't actually a parts failure. This issue was more of a work-tracking/maintenance logging issue. Preliminary reports indicate that the subcontractor did not have full access to Boeing's internal maintenance logging system, and this caused a disconnect between the actual state of the aircraft and the state of the aircraft on paper. As a result, airplanes were being delivered without the door plug being properly installed. Other mishaps in the news lately are more likely to be airline process-adherence/maintenance issues, and less likely to be Boeing quality problems, in my opinion. I haven't seen anything yet that would indicate a systemic problem with quality/reliability of actual aircraft components.

If a contractor makes a part for an airline, who is responsible for safety testing of that part? Contractor? Airline?

In basic terms, the subcontractor is going to be responsible for the quality of the part, and for obtaining its certification. But the aircraft manufacturer will also bear some responsibility, especially if issues arise during integration testing or flight tests. At the end of the day, it's Boeing's name on the airplane-- similar to how if your iPhone spontaneously combusts, Apple will ultimately bear responsibility, even if it was a third-party component that was the culprit.

There are of course contracts between the aircraft manufacturer and the subcontractor; however, most of the details, I would imagine, are pretty boilerplate, since much of the actions/requirements of the subcontractor are predefined by federal regulation (i.e., the FAA part certification process). 

What AI Made This Week

Sick Fits by Ahmed

In the midst of Dune Part Two mania, we're giving a shoutout to Princess Irulan, played by Florence Pugh.

EVERY IRULAN FIT we’ve seen from cinematic photos absolutely shreds.

Total ‘Airy yet medieval vibes’.

Sounds like an AI prompt.

Have a great week!

Ahmed and Peter