Review of The Douglas Company

The first 200 words of this essay...

Introduction:

The Douglas Company was market leader in the field of aviation until the 1950's. Then, the Boeing Company proved to be a stiff competitor in the jet market, with its 707. Douglas was then taken over by Mc. Donnell Aircraft in 1967. General Dynamics' Convair Division was given the subcontract for structural design, where Mc Donnell Douglas had the primary authority to furnish design criteria and to amend decisions. This was done keeping solely profits in mind. Convair's role was to create a design that would satisfy the stipulated criteria. They were given the contract for building the fuselage and cargo doors. Mc Douglas stressed on using electric rather than hydraulic actuators to close the cargo doors, inspite of Convair being adamant that a hydraulic system was needed. As the leading manufacturer of aircrafts, Mc. Donnell Douglas took the responsibility for certification of the aircraft, as it had considerable clout in the FAA. In seeking the certification it maintained that all defects had been removed. The irony is that Convair was not responsible for any mishaps.

Facts (in chronological order):

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis was prepared by Convair and submitted to Douglas, which contained two