In another Boe-neheaded move, some dim bulb in Boeing’s management thought, “Hey! Let’s move our B-1 program (one of America’s principal bombers, known affectionately in the military as “The Bone”) from California, where people earn a decent living, to Oklahoma, where they don’t know the difference between a dollar bill and a mess of okra!” This is akin to what happened with the 787 Nightmare Dream Liner, the production of which was moved from Seattle to South Carolina, resulting in the tinker-toy version of the plane which has been incinerating itself across the globe.
Well of course no one Boeing hired at bottom-of-the-barrel wages in Oklahoma had ever even heard of flying machines much less the US Air Force and strategic bombers. The result? The Air Force, hard to keep happy in the best of circumstances, were so infuriated by the new, inept and utterly useless Boeing B-1 program In Oklahoma that they abruptly terminated the contract. (Boeing’s performance was so miserable that the Air Force considered that Boeing had violated terms previously agreed to, therefore the contract was null.) So now the great, brilliant move has cost Boeing a huge chunk of its military income, which they are desperately trying to win back. The government has issued RFQs (Request For Quote) for someone else to take over the contract. Meanwhile, Boeing has been left holding the, um—okra.