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thewayne*SMH* Why didn't they just buy or lease the damn thing?
The company suing Boeing, Wilson Aerospace, is suing Boeing for theft of intellectual property. Wilson makes a special torque wrench, the Fluid Fitting Torque Device-3, which is ideal for monster bolts and high torque specifications in hard to reach places, such as inside a rocket booster assembly. Boeing needed such a device desperately to properly attach the engines to the SLS rocket. So they asked Wilson to come out for a demonstration. Little did they know that seven or more alleged Boeing employees were actually engineers for Wilson competitors who engaged in a hands-on demo, who went on to build a wrench for Boeing.
I really wish the article listed dollar amounts involved, I can't imagine paying competitors to develop the equivalent device was less expensive than buying or leasing it from the people who invented it. And it's not like Boeing hasn't already wasted a billion dollars or more on this project.
And here's another thing: lawsuit. Discovery process. So much is going to come out of this discovery process that will make Boeing look like absolute idiots that Fox News is going to be looking at them saying "See! We're not the only idiots out there!"
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/06/supplier-sues-boeing-over-alleged-theft-of-sls-rocket-tools/
The company suing Boeing, Wilson Aerospace, is suing Boeing for theft of intellectual property. Wilson makes a special torque wrench, the Fluid Fitting Torque Device-3, which is ideal for monster bolts and high torque specifications in hard to reach places, such as inside a rocket booster assembly. Boeing needed such a device desperately to properly attach the engines to the SLS rocket. So they asked Wilson to come out for a demonstration. Little did they know that seven or more alleged Boeing employees were actually engineers for Wilson competitors who engaged in a hands-on demo, who went on to build a wrench for Boeing.
I really wish the article listed dollar amounts involved, I can't imagine paying competitors to develop the equivalent device was less expensive than buying or leasing it from the people who invented it. And it's not like Boeing hasn't already wasted a billion dollars or more on this project.
And here's another thing: lawsuit. Discovery process. So much is going to come out of this discovery process that will make Boeing look like absolute idiots that Fox News is going to be looking at them saying "See! We're not the only idiots out there!"
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/06/supplier-sues-boeing-over-alleged-theft-of-sls-rocket-tools/
