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Boeing鈥檚 very public struggles lately have included deadly crashes of the 737 MAX overseas, the falling door plug earlier this year near Portland, and now the machinists鈥� strike. Still, many people around here have high hopes that the company will recapture some of its former glory and restore the pride that many take in Boeing鈥檚 local roots.

To dig a little deeper into the Boeing backstory, 成人X站 Newsradio caught up with the company鈥檚 in-house historian, who shared some perspective on the past and how it just might inform the future.

At the around-the-world flight centennial this past weekend at Sand Point, aviation history people from around the Northwest gathered, and many sat down for interviews to help create a historic record of the event. One of the people interviewed was Mike Lombardi, the longtime corporate archivist and historian for Boeing.

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Saturday鈥檚 Sand Point event was a festive occasion. During Lombardi鈥檚 interview, everyone was waiting for the fly-over portion of the event, which functioned as the grand finale, and which featured 鈥渁dventure flyers鈥� and vintage aircraft. Lombardi made it clear he was waiting specifically for the Boeing B-29 known as 鈥淔IFI,鈥� which was the shining silver aluminum star of the show, and one of only two examples of the model still airworthy today.

Despite the festive air, the historical nature of the event meant that it was not inappropriate to ask Lombardi about Boeing鈥檚 recent troubles and how the struggles fit into the history everyone was celebrating. As it turns out, the history also has a role in the future of Boeing that many were thinking about and perhaps ever worrying about.

Lombardi knows his stuff, and he鈥檚 respected in the history community as a helpful resource and a straight-shooter. During Saturday鈥檚 conversation, he put the current struggles into context.

Boeing has been around long enough that we’ve been through two major world pandemics,鈥� Lombardi said, referencing the recent era of COVID-19 and the influenza of a century ago. We’ve seen two world wars, we’ve been through the Great Depression and the Great Recession.I don鈥檛 know how many times we’ve been through downturns. And the tragedies, the setbacks that we face 鈥� that鈥檚 part of our DNA that we overcome that challenge, that we accept that that’s our business. When you’re working in science and technology, you know you’re going to fail and you know you’re going to have difficult times, but you got to persevere.鈥�

Long before the more recent challenges, Boeing faced setbacks that might have doomed the company under slightly different circumstances: including in 1935 when the B-17 prototype crashed in Ohio as the Army was deciding whether or not to place a big order; in 1943 when short of the runway at Boeing Field, just as that long-range bomber program was being sped up in order to attack Japan; and in 1971 when Congress cancelled the supersonic transport (SST) and spurred the so-called Boeing Bust.

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For anyone who鈥檚 lived here for at least a few decades, no historian is necessary to understand that Boeing recovered from each of these setbacks. In many ways, these incidents have become the stuff of Pacific Northwest mythology.

With the current troubles, it鈥檚 stories like these, and Lombardi鈥檚 unique role as the Boeing historian, that he says gives him a unique opportunity to be part of helping bring back that vaunted Boeing culture 鈥� around innovation, quality and especially safety 鈥� the loss of which so many people justifiably lament.

鈥淎nd that’s one of the things I feel is so important,鈥� Lombardi said. 鈥淲hat I do is be that memory, because Boeing’s going to come back after this, we’re gonna reach back to that culture.鈥�

鈥淓verybody says that the Boeing has lost its way, and in some ways it’s true,鈥� he concedes. 鈥淭here were people from outside who came in and ran Boeing the way they thought it should be. And here we are.鈥�

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鈥淏ut we have a new leader now,鈥� Lombardi continued, 鈥渨ho I have incredible confidence in, who is somebody who’s going to bring forward that culture, that winning Boeing culture, and bring us back to put us back on that same path.鈥�

It鈥檚 not the job of a radio historian to be a Boeing cheerleader 鈥� even in Seattle 鈥� but it鈥檚 hard not to get excited about a company with a big local footprint and with volumes of local history.聽 Boeing’s legacy impacted the entire world and the company is lucky to have someone like Lombardi, who is methodically putting the history and the corporate memory to work to shape the future.

鈥淭his is the history of Boeing,鈥� Lombardi said. 鈥淭ime and again, we’re faced with incredible adversity. It’s almost like we don’t thrive unless we have adversity, but that adversity always leads to something amazing.

鈥淎nd I know that’s what’s going to happen,鈥� Lombardi said.

As the conversation was concluding, overhead and to the east of Sand Point, the procession of aircraft was perhaps getting underway. It was hard to tell exactly what was what, given that aircraft constantly fly over that portion of Lake Washington.

Did 鈥淢r. Boeing History鈥� 鈥� that straight-shooting archivist and historian Lombardi 鈥� know if the small, single-engine plane we could see was, in fact, one of the 鈥渁dventure flyers鈥�?

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know,鈥� Lombardi said, smiling and chuckling as he confirmed that he was there at the fly-over only to see the Renton-built B-29.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here.

If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks.