Sidewalk sculpture in downtown Melbourne.
Boeing bravely invited about 20 of the "world's leading aviation journalists" -- cough, cough -- to Australia last month to show us how far they've come since August 2008.
Two years ago, the company parted ways with its previous leadership team on the continent, starting from scratch to rebuild relationships with a skeptical Australian military customer.
On our week-long tour, we saw unmanned aircraft flying in Toogoolawah, C-17s and F/A-18Fs parked in Amberley and a high-end composite factory in Fishermans Bend. I filed a 3-page feature on the experience in this week's copy of Flight International, which is now online.
The story includes a rebuttal by David Withers, Boeing's previous top executive in the country, who says of the current leadership: "It's actually got worse over the last two years [for Boeing Australia] rather than better. When I was there we were still winning business."
The facts on the ground show that's not an entirely fair assessment. Boeing appears to have stabilized its worst-performing programs, including Wedgetail, High Frequency Modifications and Vigilaire. But it is true that the company must show more improvement to fulfill it's ambitious goal to double sales results in Australia by 2014.
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