CAE recently outbid Flight Safety for the long-term fixed-wing training contract for the U.S Army. We do our annual refreshers through them as well. Great company.

 

 

The B-29 was designed and built by Boeing

 

B-29 was designed by Boeing, but Lockheed Martin helped build them including the Enola Gay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay).  Boeing and Lockheed still work together to this day ... maybe when the L1011 was around they were fierce competitors, they don't appear to be today (certainly not on the commercial side).

 

Cheers, Rob.

B-29 was designed by Boeing, but Lockheed Martin helped build them including the Enola Gay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay). Boeing and Lockheed still work together to this day ... maybe when the L1011 was around they were fierce competitors, they don't appear to be today (certainly not on the commercial side).

 

Cheers, Rob.

That's true. During the war years, many aircraft manufacturers contracted to build sub assemblies, or even entire aircraft for other companies. Even the US automobile industry was involved, with many General Motors, Chrysler and Ford auto factories converted to manufacture airplanes and aircraft engines.

 

Of course Boeing's main competitor was always Douglas Aircraft. The rivalry between those two companies was intense. (Until Boeing finally bought out McDonnel Douglas in the 1990s).

 

Now, of course, Boeing's chief rival is Airbus.

 

Subcontracting has always been a part of the aircraft manufacturing industry. During the 1970s, the Convair division of General Dynamics built the center fuselage section of the Douglas DC-10 at their factory in San Diego. Interestingly, the completed fuselage sections were then flown to the Douglas factory in Long Beach aboard an Aero Spacelines "Pregnant Guppy" heavy lift transport which was.... a heavily modified Boeing Stratocruiser -direct descendant of the B-29. The old literally helping give birth to the new.

 

Even more ironic - for many years, Airbus used later versions of the "Guppy" aircraft to transport A320 sub assemblies to the factory in Toulouse for completion

CAE recently outbid Flight Safety for the long-term fixed-wing training contract for the U.S Army. We do our annual refreshers through them as well. Great company.

I have done maintenance training at both Flight Safety and CAE, and found the CAE training to be more comprehensive. It is a great company. A good friend of mine recently retired from active flying as a charter pilot to become a Hawker sim instructor at CAE, and he loves working there.