Rebirth of the Military Industrial Overlord

The noon sun shines in through the small windows, reflecting the small living room variegatedly. Outside the house is the sound of waves from Santa Monica Beach. The two inside the house did not speak any more, Donald Duckla Jr. Si was lost in thought, while Tan Zhenhua was waiting quietly.

After a long time, Donald raised his eyes and said grimly: "Eric, I have to admit that you moved me a little bit, but the difficulty of this matter is quite high, so I must know your detailed plan and your order The price you are prepared to pay for doing this thing, of course, you have to tell me frankly, you helped me do this thing, what kind of benefits you plan to get from it, I don’t believe that a stranger who meets for the first time can be free Help me."

Tan Zhenhua twitched the corner of his mouth slightly, and then put on a very serious look.

He leaned forward, approached Donald Douglas Jr., and then whispered: "Two months ago, on September 13, 1982, on West Bandas Airline Flight 995, a DC-10 was flying in West Bengal. In addition, there was a sudden failure during take-off at the airport. The pilot chose to terminate the takeoff when the speed had reached VR. Because the speed was too fast, the plane dashed off the runway and eventually crashed after crossing a highway. The accident caused 381 passengers and passengers on board. Fifty of the 13 crew members were killed and 110 were injured. Although the final investigation report of the accident has not been released yet, Mr. Donald, you are a veteran of the aviation manufacturing industry. In your estimation, what will this accident cause? The results of it?"

Little Donald's face instantly turned pale.

This was the news that made the headlines at the time, and as an insider in the aviation manufacturing industry, the former director and CEO of Daukras Aircraft Company, he felt different about this news from others. After all, this catastrophic The airplane mentioned in the news was manufactured by a company founded by his father.

For a civil aircraft, the most important concern of the airlines that purchase it and the people who fly it is obviously safety, and its economy, comfort, etc. must be placed after this most critical factor. After all No one wants to write a suicide note before taking a flight...

Ordinary people obviously don’t have professional knowledge, can understand a lot of aviation terminology, and don’t know what the aircraft manufacturer has done for the safety of a civil aviation aircraft. Therefore, whether they are safe from an aircraft The simplest and most intuitive judgment-the flight accident history of this aircraft and the official responsibility for the accident.

And if, for a civil aviation aircraft, if it is determined that the cause of the accident in a certain accident comes from the design or manufacture of the aircraft itself, it will undoubtedly have an extremely serious impact on the company that produces it!

Models are grounded, orders are frozen or even cancelled, these are all foreseeable results.

And these are undoubtedly fatal to aircraft manufacturers who need huge amounts of funds for early investment!

So is McDonnell Douglas about to face a huge trouble?

He swallowed hard and asked in a trembling voice, "So, Tan, you already know the cause of this accident in advance?"

Tan Zhenhua nodded slightly and said: "Yes, Mr. Donald, in fact, I learned the specific cause of the accident through some channels a week ago, but the official has not officially announced it. As for the reason for the delay, you are If you know McDonnell Douglas' government public relations capabilities, you must know what they will do."

Little Donald nodded slightly. Tan Zhenhua did not explicitly state the cause of the accident after the official investigation, but from his words, a very clear conclusion can be drawn: the cause of the accident must be the DC-10 aircraft. Some design or manufacturing defect! And McDonnell Douglas obviously knows this, and will spare no effort to delay the impact of this incident through other means!

"But as far as I know, this result will be announced sometime next week, because some people have different ways of handling this matter." Tan Zhenhua continued.

"You mean?"

"Let's put it this way, McDonnell Douglas' biggest competitor, Boeing, obviously doesn't want this matter to be ended hastily, and you know their capabilities," Tan Zhenhua said.

Donald Douglas Jr. fell silent again.

Boeing, Douglas' biggest competitor, an endless business enemy.

But who would have thought that the founder of Boeing, William Edward Boeing and the founder of Douglas, Donald Wells Douglas, were once inextricably good friends?

When the old Douglas designed and manufactured a twin-engine single-wing "Dolphin" amphibious aircraft, he gave one of them to Boeing!

The two of them who fell in love and killed each other had such strikingly similar endings. William Edward Boeing sold all his shares in 1954 and quit the Boeing company he founded and vowed that he would never have anything to do with it. Old Douglas The same choice was made in 1967.

Or, is this the sorrow and helplessness of American entrepreneurs in the face of capital?

He shook his head, expelled this untimely sigh from his brain, raised his head, stared at Tan Zhenhua's eyes and asked in a deep voice, "So, what are you going to do?"

Tan Zhenhua smiled slightly and said: "As you know, there is no doubt that McDonnell Douglas will go through a very difficult period with the release of the accident investigation report. DC-10 may be completely banned by the Federal Aviation Administration, and even DC -9 is likely to be affected. Under such a blow, the delivery of McDonnell Douglas’ future orders will undoubtedly be very severely affected, and you know, whether it is Dauklas or McDonald’s, its impact on cash flow Management has always been very poor, so McDonnell Douglas is likely to face the dilemma of running out of cash, and that is our opportunity."

"Tan, what you said is very reasonable. This kind of situation has a very high probability of occurrence. However, I must point out that even if McDonnell Douglas is facing such a situation and wants to swallow it in one go, the funds needed will be Tianliang, I think, apart from Boeing or Lockheed Martin, almost no other company has the interest and ability to do such a thing."

"No, no, Mr. Donald, I never expected to swallow McDonnell in one bite. As I said just now, my goal is to help you regain control of Dow Claes, not including McDonald."

"But they are now a company..." Donald Douglas retorted.

"Really?" Tan Zhenhua asked with a smile, "I think, I'm afraid I'm not the only one who thinks this way. As of today, Douglas and McDonald have always been two companies."