Boeing Co

Shareholders of Airbus Industrie on Tuesday approved production of the world's largest airliner, taking dead aim at Boeing Co.'s decades-long monopoly of the market for large commercial aircraft and threatening to touch off a major trade dispute with the United States. In a bold strategy to control one of the most lucrative exports in the world, the European-based consortium is risking $11 billion to develop the super-jumbo plane.

Boeing Co. predicted Thursday that the Air Force would order as many as 14 more C-17 transport jets, extending the plane's production. Boeing is funding parts purchases at its own expense in anticipation that the Air Force will add more C-17s to its 190-plane order. The Chicago-based company has delivered 170 aircraft already and may shut down production in Long Beach if additional orders don't come in.

The state's top environmental officer Tuesday asked federal officials for more time to decide if California should back an effort to make Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory a Superfund cleanup site. Linda S. Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said the state might be better positioned to make Boeing more quickly remove the rocket fuel and nuclear test contamination that was left at the site near Chatsworth.

When the U.S. Air Force recently launched its third attempt to award a $35-billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, Pentagon officials said the competition would be fair and transparent. But it was only a matter of days before the process was under attack. Interest groups, politicians and the contenders -- Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. -- began blasting the way the bids were evaluated, prompting some defense industry analysts to question whether the Air Force would ever get its much-needed tankers.

Scott Carson is stepping aside as the head of Boeing Co.'s troubled airplane business, part of a sweeping management shake-up announced Monday by the Chicago aerospace manufacturer. Carson, 63, plans to retire from Boeing effective Jan. 1 but will depart his current post Tuesday. He will be replaced by Jim Albaugh, 59, who has run Boeing's defense business since 2002. Albaugh's replacement is Dennis Muilenburg, 45, president of an $8-billion Boeing unit that provides support to the company's military customers.

Prospects are brightening for Boeing Co.'s once-threatened C-17 aircraft factory in Long Beach, where 5,000 workers could find themselves employed for several more years -- if not longer. The factory is home to the last major airplane production line left in Southern California. For decades, the region was the nation's bastion of aircraft manufacturing, with plants from Burbank to San Diego rolling out planes hourly.

Monday's crash of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 jetliner marred the record of one of the most widely used aircraft types in the world, a twin-engine jet that has established a solid safety history. Alaska's upkeep of its MD-80 series aircraft has been the subject of a probe by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, and the Federal Aviation Administration last year examined whether Alaska executives falsified records to cover up faulty maintenance of MD-80s. Boeing Co.'

Despite Boeing's strenuous efforts to reduce the 787 Dreamliner's weight, the plane weighed more than expected when it first rolled out two years ago. Days before the plane's maiden flight last week, Boeing published a document for airlines that suggests to some weight-watching industry analysts that the 787 still exceeds its original target weight by a few tons. Airlines have ordered 840 of the pioneering composite-plastic planes based on Boeing's projections for its range, payload and fuel efficiency -- all reduced by added weight.

After struggling for nearly 15 years to prop up an unusual way to launch satellites into space, Boeing Co. is expected to throw in the towel and walk away from its stake in Long Beach-based Sea Launch Co. Kjell Karlsen, Sea Launch president, said Wednesday that Boeing was likely to have little or no ownership position in the rocket launch company after it emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court reorganization early next year. "Based on what Boeing has said to us, I don't expect them to commit any more capital to this venture," Karlsen said.

The United Airlines jumbo jet that ripped open early Friday in the sky near Hawaii was an aging Boeing 747 with structural problems in its maintenance history. Although investigators are leaning toward structural failure as the most likely explanation for the truck-sized hole in the fuselage of the aircraft, other possibilities include problems in latching its right-side cargo door--or a bomb.

Boeing Co. swung to a fourth-quarter profit compared with a loss last year, when a machinists' strike halted production lines. The aerospace company Wednesday reported earnings of $1.27 billion, or $1.75 a share. Boeing lost $86 million, or 12 cents, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose to $17.9 billion from $12.7 billion a year earlier. Boeing posted a profit despite facing an economic downturn that shrank orders for airplanes. Amid the depressed economic environment, airlines were stung by a slump in air travel, and few ordered new planes.

Despite Boeing's strenuous efforts to reduce the 787 Dreamliner's weight, the plane weighed more than expected when it first rolled out two years ago. Days before the plane's maiden flight last week, Boeing published a document for airlines that suggests to some weight-watching industry analysts that the 787 still exceeds its original target weight by a few tons. Airlines have ordered 840 of the pioneering composite-plastic planes based on Boeing's projections for its range, payload and fuel efficiency -- all reduced by added weight.

At long last, Boeing Co.'s 787 passenger jet took to the skies Tuesday, making its maiden test flight and marking a major milestone in commercial aviation. Thousands of Boeing workers and journalists were on hand at Paine Field just north of Seattle to witness the takeoff of the Dreamliner, a 250-seat jetliner that promises to burn less fuel and last longer than other aircraft flying today. "This was a big step for Boeing," said aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group Corp.

After struggling for nearly 15 years to prop up an unusual way to launch satellites into space, Boeing Co. is expected to throw in the towel and walk away from its stake in Long Beach-based Sea Launch Co. Kjell Karlsen, Sea Launch president, said Wednesday that Boeing was likely to have little or no ownership position in the rocket launch company after it emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court reorganization early next year. "Based on what Boeing has said to us, I don't expect them to commit any more capital to this venture," Karlsen said.

Northrop Grumman Corp. on Wednesday said it posted lower third-quarter profit because of higher pension expenses, but the results surpassed analysts' expectations and the company lifted its profit outlook for the year. In contrast, Boeing Co. said it lost $1.6 billion in the quarter, hurt by growing costs of two troubled plane programs that forced the airplane maker to slash its profit forecast. The world's second-largest commercial plane maker after Europe's Airbus, Boeing has struggled to launch its 787 passenger jet and a revamped version of its classic 747 jumbo jet. Production delays, parts shortages and last-minute fixes have cost the company billions in write-downs along with additional design and manufacturing expenses.

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.

When the U.S. Air Force recently launched its third attempt to award a $35-billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, Pentagon officials said the competition would be fair and transparent. But it was only a matter of days before the process was under attack. Interest groups, politicians and the contenders -- Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. -- began blasting the way the bids were evaluated, prompting some defense industry analysts to question whether the Air Force would ever get its much-needed tankers.

The race to win one of the largest military deals ever awarded kicked off Friday, when Defense Department officials unveiled the arcane criteria they will use to purchase a fleet of aerial refueling tankers from Northrop Grumman Corp. or Boeing Co. But what was once a sprint has become a marathon as the Pentagon attempts for a fourth time to replace its fleet of 415 Eisenhower-era tankers through contracts expected to total more than $100 billion. The Air Force said it would be "crystal clear" in its requirements for new tankers to avoid errors from previous selection processes.

Scott Carson is stepping aside as the head of Boeing Co.'s troubled airplane business, part of a sweeping management shake-up announced Monday by the Chicago aerospace manufacturer. Carson, 63, plans to retire from Boeing effective Jan. 1 but will depart his current post Tuesday. He will be replaced by Jim Albaugh, 59, who has run Boeing's defense business since 2002. Albaugh's replacement is Dennis Muilenburg, 45, president of an $8-billion Boeing unit that provides support to the company's military customers.

Boeing Co. and supporters of the C-17 cargo plane launched a multi-front public relations offensive Thursday, hoping to extend the life of one of Southern California's last major military aircraft factories. The company ran full-page advertisements in local newspapers, including The Times, and about 450 union members staged a rally near the plane's assembly line in Long Beach urging Congress to buy more of the aircraft. In Washington, 18 U.S. senators also wrote a letter seeking support to keep the aircraft production moving.