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Seems Douglas was a cursed company. It was on a brink of bankruptcy, was acquired by McDonnel, which went to almost bankruptcy itself, and now it is happening to Boeing.

Who will be the next victim?

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United Launch Alliance

And it's already happening, see the Vulcan and CST programs.

Starliner (I assume that's what you mean by CST) is pure Boeing, not ULA. It's also worth mentioning that ULA's probably about to be sold [1]; the three potential buyers are Blue Origin, the private equity fund Cerberus [2], and the aerospace contractor Textron.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/11/sale-of-united-launch-...

[2] https://www.wsj.com/business/billionaires-compete-to-own-spa...

Blue Origin is a textbook example of big aerospace contractor incompetence inheritance by design. Bezos made them the anti-SpaceX.

They haven't exactly covered themselves in glory so far, but I'm curious if there'll be any major change now that Bob Smith is no longer CEO.

20 years sans orbit has to be blamed on more than Bob Smith. :)

The United States of America.

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