The home team finally won one! I am not speaking of the Cards, but instead Boeing. Yesterday, it was announced that Saint Louis would be building the next generation fighter. This has been a long time coming, ending quite a dry spell. A spell that spanned the length of my career. So many times, while I worked there, we came in second. Always a bridesmaid, never the bride, but that has ended.

Announced as the F-47, in a wise nod to Trump’s presidency, this new military aircraft will rejuvenate Saint Louis’s flagging aircraft industry. In the nineties, when I began working for what was then McDonnell Douglas there were 40K Saint Louis employees. Today, there are little more than 15K, most subsisting off of legacy programs like the F-15 and F-18. Programs that sustained my career.

I retired over eight years ago, but this new fighter was already being developed. I could have worked this program then, but I had already drawn tired of chasing pipe dreams that I would never see any conclusion from. I was already headed towards the door by then. Slated to replace the F-22, this new plane probably began development the moment that that one first took off. The aggressive schedule for the F-47 has its first flight occurring before Trump leaves office, but since he has no plans to ever leave that does not really say much.

So, the new plane has a number (47), but it does not yet have a proper name. Much like the F-22 is the Raptor, the F-18 is the Hornet, and the F-15 is the Eagle, each type of aircraft gets a name. The name for this new aircraft is yet to be announced. The government used to allow the contractor to pick this name, but JS McDonnell’s phantasmagorical bent ruined that. He named his various planes the Phantom, Banshee, Voodoo, Demon and the Goblin. Finally, the Air Force said enough and picked Eagle or the F-15. I doubt that they will give anyone in Saint Louis that kind of authority ever again.

This morning, we took Declan to his weekly music lesson, Bach & Boogie. This class is a hoot! Watch a half-dozen toddlers interact with each other, while trying to respond to the music is precious. Pictured in the chaos is Alex, performing today’s piece, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. In this music, various instruments are paired with characters from the story. Giving each one its own theme. I love the pairing of the cat with the clarinet, especially Garrison Keillor’s one-off version for Bertha’s Kitty Boutique. There are changes ahead in this program. Alex’s wife was accepted at Brown as a resident, and they will be moving soon.