Source: Boeing to propose 787 battery fix to FAA

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. I don't know if that is how I would phrase it,

Boeing wanted to be more like Airbus, which after the disastrous run that followed the McDonnell Douglas merger wasn't entirely a bad idea.

The problem was that they skipped the most important part of the Airbus story. The Airbus consortium members were not random industrial interests that answered RFP's with the lowest bid, they were independent commercial aircraft makers. Hawker Siddeley and Aerospatiale had both independently developed and delivered commercial jets. Either could have built the A300 alone, they just lacked the resources to do so independently. Boeing partners such as Vought were so far in over their head that it was doomed from the beginning.