Boeing

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

A company headed by cellphone pioneer Craig O. McCaw asked the California Supreme Court to reinstate a $603-million fraud and breach-of-contract verdict against Boeing Co., alleging that two appellate justices had conflicts of interest. ICO Global Communications, a subsidiary of Pendrell Corp., said in its appeal filed Wednesday that two state 2nd District Court of Appeal judges considered Boeing's petition to toss out the trial court verdict even though they owned stock in Boeing.

The Department of Homeland Security, positioning itself to cut its losses on a so-called invisible fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, has decided not to exercise a one-year option for Boeing to continue work on the troubled multibillion-dollar project involving high-tech cameras, radar and vibration sensors. The result, after an investment of more than $1 billion, may be a system with only 53 miles of unreliable coverage along the nearly 2,000-mile border. The virtual fence was intended to link advanced monitoring technologies to command centers for Border Patrol to identify and thwart human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Boeing Co.'s profit soared 58% in its first quarter as it built more efficient planes for airlines struggling with high fuel costs. The Chicago company earned $923 million, or $1.22 a share, compared with $586 million, or 78 cents, during the same period a year earlier. Its revenue boomed 30% to $19.4 billion. Boeing said it delivered 137 commercial planes during the quarter, and it has orders to build more than 4,000 others valued at a record $308 billion. The aircraft maker said it has more than 300 orders for its new fuel-efficient 737 Max jetliner.

Gov. Jerry Brown sat down in the captain's chair inside the cockpit of a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo jet and gazed at an array of gauges and dials spread out before him. At one point he turned to Bob Ciesla, Boeing's C-17 program manager, and asked: "Is this where it's built?" Ciesla confirmed that Long Beach was the manufacturing site - and that the company has struggled in recent years to keep the plant operating. He didn't seem to mind that the governor did not know that the military's workhorse cargo jet has been built here since the early 1990s.

Boeing Co. has discovered a flaw in fuselage sections that may affect 55 of its new 787 Dreamliner jets and slow some deliveries, James Albaugh, Boeing's chief executive for commercial airplanes, said Wednesday. The Dreamliner is an all-new commercial jet that is largely made of lightweight carbon composites rather than sheets of aluminum. The plane made its first passenger flight with All Nippon Airways in October, but it was more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.

A World Trade Organization panel's finding that the European aviation company Airbus had benefited from years of unfair subsidies is, on its surface, a victory for Boeing and the United States in their six-year quest to force Airbus to compete on a level playing field. Yet it also lays the groundwork for an important precedent that could ultimately help both firms in future disputes against new state-subsidized competitors. The trade body focused on the support that Airbus has received from European governments to help develop and launch virtually all of its large civilian airplane models.

The National Labor Relations Board accused Boeing earlier this year of illegally retaliating against unionized workers by expanding its facilities in a largely nonunion state, South Carolina. Republicans joined much of corporate America in denouncing the board's complaint, calling it a barely disguised attack on state "right to work" laws that make it harder for unions to organize. The questions raised by the board are legitimate ones. The problem is the remedy it has proposed, which would have the perverse effect of confining Boeing's growth to its home region.

Time is running out at Southern California's last major conventional aircraft factory. Citing declining orders for its C-17 cargo planes, Boeing Co. said it was cutting 900 of the 3,700 jobs at its sprawling Long Beach plant. Barring congressional intervention or a spate of foreign orders — which analysts say is unlikely — the factory is expected to shut down completely by the end of next year. "There's just not that much of a market for this aircraft," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant in Issaquah, Wash.

Boeing Co. announced plans to close its long-standing facility in Wichita, Kan., where the company works on B-52 Stratofortress bombers and aerial refueling tankers. The company's historic facility in Wichita has played a large role in city's claim to be the Air Capital of the World. During World War II, the Boeing complex churned out B-29 Superfortress bombers and later the larger B-52s. More than 2,160 people are employed at the facility. Boeing said work will gradually be scaled down before it is officially closed by the end of next year.

The Boeing Co. raked in 58% more income in its first quarter as it builds more efficient planes for airlines struggling with high fuel costs. The company earned $923 million, or $1.22 per share, compared with $586 million, or 78 cents a share, during the same period a year earlier. Its revenue boomed 30% to $19.4 billion. During the quarter, Boeing delivered 137 commercial planes and said it has orders to build more than 4,000 others valued at a record $308 billion.

Most weekdays, Jarrad Sims and Tin Tam, a pair of college buddies, ride their bikes to a computer center and try to hack into computer security systems belonging to Boeing Co. Rather than having them arrested, Boeing is paying them to do it - a situation that the car-loving, video-gaming friends have pronounced "awesome. " For two years, the young engineers have worked side by side in a secluded unit where they design and thoroughly test ironclad security systems for the largest aerospace company in the world.

The type of jet that crashed into a Virginia Beach neighborhood Friday, the F/A-18 Hornet, is familiar to many Americans. It's been a workhorse of the U.S. military for almost 30 years -- not to mention the jet of choice for the Blue Angels, the Navy's aerobatic team. The twin-engine aircraft was introduced in 1983 as the replacement for the military's F-14 Tomcat, which reached notoriety in the movie “Top Gun.” The F/A-18 played a prominent role in Operation Desert Storm in the 1990s.

Gov. Jerry Brown sat down in the captain's chair inside the cockpit of a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo jet and gazed at an array of gauges and dials spread out before him. At one point he turned to Bob Ciesla, Boeing's C-17 program manager, and asked: "Is this where it's built?" Ciesla confirmed that Long Beach was the manufacturing site - and that the company has struggled in recent years to keep the plant operating. He didn't seem to mind that the governor did not know that the military's workhorse cargo jet has been built here since the early 1990s.

In an estimated $1-billion boost to the Southland aerospace industry, satellite maker Boeing Co. and rocket firm Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, announced plans to build and launch four satellites for telecommunications firms in Mexico and Hong Kong. The companies' joint satellite order will help preserve high-paying engineering jobs in the South Bay and throws a lifeline to hundreds of smaller aerospace suppliers feeling an economic pinch with Pentagon and NASA budget cuts on the horizon.

Boeing Co. has discovered a flaw in fuselage sections that may affect 55 of its new 787 Dreamliner jets and slow some deliveries, James Albaugh, Boeing's chief executive for commercial airplanes, said Wednesday. The Dreamliner is an all-new commercial jet that is largely made of lightweight carbon composites rather than sheets of aluminum. The plane made its first passenger flight with All Nippon Airways in October, but it was more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.

The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the way for the new Boeing 787 to take its first commercial flight. Both the FAA and European regulators certified the plane for flight Friday. Boeing Co. completed flight tests on the 787 this month. Boeing plans to deliver the first 787 to Japan's All Nippon Airways in September. The airline plans to fly it for the first time as a charter on Oct. 26 and begin regular service Nov. 1. Because of various production problems, delivery is about three years late.

When Boeing Co. unveiled plans to build the 787 Dreamliner, the aircraft was touted as revolutionary, a major technological shift in the way a plane is made and in the way it operates. But revolutions rarely come without a struggle. The 787 is now more than two years behind schedule and by some estimates is costing Boeing $4 billion more to develop than planned. The troubled jetliner has also set back other Boeing projects, analysts say, and has left some suppliers financially strapped.

Boeing Co. has discovered a flaw in fuselage sections that may affect 55 of its new 787 Dreamliner jets and slow some deliveries, James Albaugh , Boeing's chief executive officer of commercial airplanes, said Wednesday. The Dreamliner is an all-new commercial jet that is largely made of lightweight carbon composites rather than sheets of aluminum. The plane made its first passenger flight with All Nippon Airways in October , but it was more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.

If lawmakers thought passing a tax cut deal would give them a reprieve from the president's Congress bashing, they were sorely mistaken. Speaking at a Boeing factory in Everett, Wash., President Obama gave Congress a backhanded compliment shortly after lawmakers passed a yearlong extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance benefits and other measures the president has called key pieces of his jobs legislation. “This is a big deal,” Obama told a group of Boeing workers shortly after the plan was passed.