Boeing Co

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.

Boeing Co., citing unresolved production problems, said Wednesday that it would be unable to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner passenger plane until early 2009 -- more than nine months later than it had promised airlines. The latest holdup marks another embarrassing setback for Boeing, which had insisted even as recently as last month that there would be no further delays after having pushed back delivery of the first 787 by six months in October.

Two key Boeing Co. defense executives have been quietly transferred to the troubled 787 jetliner program, suggesting that problems with developing the plane could be worse than the company has revealed. In what some analysts said was an unusual move, the two executives were placed on "special assignment" with the commercial aircraft division in Seattle in early January, two weeks before Boeing announced that production problems had forced a further delay in initial deliveries of the Dreamliner.

Delays in Boeing Co.'s 787 program have given the company extra time to fine-tune the plane's electronics and other systems, lowering the risk that it will encounter problems during flight testing, the head of its commercial jet division said. Speaking in New York at an aerospace and defense conference, Scott Carson said Boeing had "great confidence that the airplane will be ready to go as we've scheduled it."

The Justice Department on Monday announced the indictment and arrest of a longtime aerospace worker in Southern California for allegedly passing classified documents to China in an elaborate espionage endeavor that spanned two decades and exposed trade secrets from the space shuttle, the Delta IV rocket and the C-17 military transport aircraft. Dongfan Chung, 72, a native of China who became a naturalized U.S.

Boeing Co. said Friday that it would seriously consider challenging a U.S. Air Force decision to give a $40-billion aerial tanker program to a team that includes its European archrival Airbus. After receiving an Air Force briefing on the victory of Century City-based Northrop Grumman Corp.

Escalating the fight over the biggest defense contract in years, Boeing Co. said Monday that it intended to challenge the Pentagon's decision to place an aircraft order potentially worth $40 billion with the consortium of Northrop Grumman Corp. and European aircraft maker Airbus. Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, plans to file a formal protest today challenging what is likely to be the nation's last big new defense contract for at least a decade.

Boeing Co. has to make design changes to its 787 Dreamliner that may further delay the plane's entry into service, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said, citing International Lease Finance Corp., the new model's biggest customer. ILFC Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy told a JPMorgan conference that the state of the 787 program was "not pretty" and that he didn't expect the first plane to be handed over until the third quarter of next year, said Joseph B. Nadol, an analyst at the bank.

Lockheed Martin Corp. beat out Boeing Co. to win a $766.2-million Pentagon contract to design and build a radio system connecting aircraft, ships and ground stations military-wide. The deal, announced Friday, could lead to the installation of tens of thousands of radios and ultimately be worth billions to the company.

Air Force representatives met last week with the chief executives of Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. to voice concern about the vitriolic tone of public statements over a $35-billion program for aerial refueling planes, two sources briefed about the meeting said Monday. The Air Force surprised the industry by awarding the contract for new tankers to Century City-based Northrop and its European partner, EADS. The decision triggered protests from Boeing and its supporters in Congress.