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Seattle is this way. Washington state has an airplane factory in the woods and a car fiber (BMW) plant out in the desert. In the city you can find businesses t

Seattle is this way. Washington state has an airplane factory in the woods and a car fiber (BMW) plant out in the desert. In the city you can find businesses to build anything.

brightball 10y ago
That's interesting to hear. In South Carolina we've got BMW in the Greenville area and Boeing in Charleston. The Greenville area itself virtually imploded 30 years ago with the textile industry and BMW has largely driven the recovery. Now it's one of the best places to live in the state.
- scottm84 10y ago
  We also have a LIGO detector out by walla walla in case gravity gets shifty in the pursuit of red.
blakeyrat 10y ago
The big question is what happens when the Chinese government puts a high priority on getting into aerospace and tries to replicate their own 787s or A-350s. That said, Boeing's defense contracts might keep is secure regardless of what happens in civil aviation. United Airlines might buy a plane from China (in a decade), but the US Navy certainly wouldn't.
- mikeash 10y ago
  The "quick, cheap, disposable" stereotype of Chinese manufacturing (whether deserved or not) seems like it would be a major hurdle for breaking into the Western civil aviation market. I see a lot of people leery of Airbus due to their approach to computer control and fly-by-wire, and that's without any doubts about their manufacturing care or attention to quality control.
- greedo 10y ago
  China has been trying to improve their commercial air industry, but engines have been a problem, both for their airliners and their military jets.
  - greglindahl 10y ago
    Which is why the single-aisle twin-engine commercial jetliner that China is already building uses foreign engines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919
  - DashRattlesnake 10y ago
    Which is why they're licensing the An-225 and jet engine technology from Ukraine. http://www.popsci.com/china-will-resurrect-worlds-largest-plane http://www.popsci.com/china-will-resurrect-worlds-largest-pl...: > The second stage of the project will involve the complete transfer of technology, including the 23 ton thrust Progress D-18T turbofan engines, to China, for licensed production of a modernized version in Sichuan Province.
- CydeWeys 10y ago
  They haven't even cracked the automobile market yet. No one in the west will buy a Chinese car, let alone a Chinese plane.
  - scottm84 10y ago
    Subaru is a Chinese version of yakuza. They have cracked the market for sure. Also, mitsubishi can build rockets similar to anything spacex can put up.
    - am183 10y ago
      Except both are Japanese companies?
      - scottm84 10y ago
        Paper ownership and proximity ownership and value ownership are all very different things on that side of the planet. Both are Japanese companies in the American version of ownership. In the proximity version of ownership, both are pirate flags.
        CydeWeys 10y ago
        Japanese cars aren't manufactured in China. This isn't a tricky situation to unravel.
    - ryhamz 10y ago
      That feel when you confuse China and Japan.
      - scottm84 10y ago
        Zero confusion whatsoever. I've been over there and sat with them and talked about infrastructure and who gets to use it. China would have very little reason to enter the broken US car market. Especially when there is an island sitting right there that is close enough for them to buy their own Mitsubishi 787s
- vwoolf 10y ago
  what happens when the Chinese government puts a high priority on getting into aerospace and tries to replicate their own 787s or A-350s I am late to this discussion, but James Fallows wrote China Airborn, a book about precisely this topic! The answer is complicated—if it weren't, he'd not bother writing a whole book about it—but the short answer is that so far China's not succeeded. China does lots of stuff well and deserves credit for it but is not the indomitable powerhouse sometimes suggested in the media (e.g. http://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/10/world/why-cant-china-make-good-ballpoint-pen http://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/10/world/why-cant-china-m..., although I don't know if this piece or others like it are for real).

Seattle is this way. Washington state has an airplane factory in the woods and a car fiber (BMW) plant out in the desert. In the city you can find businesses to build anything.

brightball 10y ago

That's interesting to hear. In South Carolina we've got BMW in the Greenville area and Boeing in Charleston. The Greenville area itself virtually imploded 30 years ago with the textile industry and BMW has largely driven the recovery. Now it's one of the best places to live in the state.

scottm84 10y ago
We also have a LIGO detector out by walla walla in case gravity gets shifty in the pursuit of red.

blakeyrat 10y ago

The big question is what happens when the Chinese government puts a high priority on getting into aerospace and tries to replicate their own 787s or A-350s. That said, Boeing's defense contracts might keep is secure regardless of what happens in civil aviation. United Airlines might buy a plane from China (in a decade), but the US Navy certainly wouldn't.

mikeash 10y ago
The "quick, cheap, disposable" stereotype of Chinese manufacturing (whether deserved or not) seems like it would be a major hurdle for breaking into the Western civil aviation market. I see a lot of people leery of Airbus due to their approach to computer control and fly-by-wire, and that's without any doubts about their manufacturing care or attention to quality control.
greedo 10y ago
China has been trying to improve their commercial air industry, but engines have been a problem, both for their airliners and their military jets.
- greglindahl 10y ago
  Which is why the single-aisle twin-engine commercial jetliner that China is already building uses foreign engines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919
- DashRattlesnake 10y ago
  Which is why they're licensing the An-225 and jet engine technology from Ukraine. http://www.popsci.com/china-will-resurrect-worlds-largest-plane http://www.popsci.com/china-will-resurrect-worlds-largest-pl...: > The second stage of the project will involve the complete transfer of technology, including the 23 ton thrust Progress D-18T turbofan engines, to China, for licensed production of a modernized version in Sichuan Province.
CydeWeys 10y ago
They haven't even cracked the automobile market yet. No one in the west will buy a Chinese car, let alone a Chinese plane.
- scottm84 10y ago
  Subaru is a Chinese version of yakuza. They have cracked the market for sure. Also, mitsubishi can build rockets similar to anything spacex can put up.
  - am183 10y ago
    Except both are Japanese companies?
    - scottm84 10y ago
      Paper ownership and proximity ownership and value ownership are all very different things on that side of the planet. Both are Japanese companies in the American version of ownership. In the proximity version of ownership, both are pirate flags.
      - CydeWeys 10y ago
        Japanese cars aren't manufactured in China. This isn't a tricky situation to unravel.
  - ryhamz 10y ago
    That feel when you confuse China and Japan.
    - scottm84 10y ago
      Zero confusion whatsoever. I've been over there and sat with them and talked about infrastructure and who gets to use it. China would have very little reason to enter the broken US car market. Especially when there is an island sitting right there that is close enough for them to buy their own Mitsubishi 787s
vwoolf 10y ago
what happens when the Chinese government puts a high priority on getting into aerospace and tries to replicate their own 787s or A-350s I am late to this discussion, but James Fallows wrote China Airborn, a book about precisely this topic! The answer is complicated—if it weren't, he'd not bother writing a whole book about it—but the short answer is that so far China's not succeeded. China does lots of stuff well and deserves credit for it but is not the indomitable powerhouse sometimes suggested in the media (e.g. http://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/10/world/why-cant-china-make-good-ballpoint-pen http://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/10/world/why-cant-china-m..., although I don't know if this piece or others like it are for real).