By Scott Hamilton

Jan. 17, 2023, © Leeham News: “What can be. What should be.”

This was the title of an address last week at the University of Washington’s aerospace department. The speaker: the former CEO of The Boeing Co., Phil Condit.

Condit was named president of Boeing in 1992 and CEO in 1996. He retired in 2004 after a lifetime career at Boeing, with leadership roles in the 747, 757, 757, 767, and 777 programs.

With ecoAviation the soup de jour these days, beneficiaries of billions of dollars of investment (much of it stupid money) and the subject of much greenwashing, Condit had frank and candid observations about these concepts.

Although Condit retired from Boeing in the wake of the USAF tanker procurement scandal dating to 2001, his engineering skills and fundamental visions were highly regarded. He put these skills to good use a week ago.

What can be

Ex-Boeing CEO Phil Condit. Credit: Leeham News.

“There’s a lot of work here that ‘can be,’ and ‘should be,’” he began. “There’s also a fair amount of stuff that ‘shouldn’t be.’ The first part about this is about energy.”

Condit noted that in the popular media today, “there is a ton of stuff about hydrogen.” Rolls-Royce recently ran an engine on hydrogen. Airbus is focused on developing a hydrogen-fueled airplane. Although he didn’t mention it, start-up Universal Hydrogen is nearing the first flight of a converted De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 in Moses Lake (WA).

“At…