End of an era *

Felix Sanchez of the Long Beach Press-Telegram got the memo and broke the story that Boeing will announce today it's going to stop building the 717 airliner. [* The Register's Andrew Galvin had the story too.] It means closure of the final commercial aircraft factory in Southern California (a nearby plant will continue to assemble military transports.) The Long Beach facility had been part of once-giant McDonnell Douglas, until Boeing took over the company. The original Douglas Aircraft built thousands of planes on the north side of Santa Monica Airport. Before that the company had an airfield and factory on Wilshire Boulevard where Douglas Park is now near 26th Street in Santa Monica. In the not so distant past, of course, MD, Lockheed, Rockwell and other companies employed hundreds of thousands in a thriving local aerospace industry. McDonnell Douglas alone employed 50,000 in Long Beach. Today's announcement down in Long Beach will cost about 700 jobs.