Boeing Co

Boeing Co. confirmed Friday that it had pushed back the date for a possible replacement for its popular 737 line of jetliners by several years, saying it needed more time for technology advancement to occur. Chicago-based Boeing put together a team to "study the possibility of creating a new airplane for the narrow-body market" in 2006, Boeing spokeswoman Sandy Angers said Friday. Since the 737's 1967 debut, the aircraft has won Boeing more than 6,000 orders. Angers said conversations with airline customers made it clear that requirements for a replacement plane -- 15% to 20% better fuel efficiency, 25% lower maintenance costs -- would require major technological advances in aerodynamics, materials and the jet's engine and electrical systems, among other areas.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged to oversee a disputed $35-billion tanker contract after congressional investigators Wednesday detailed numerous mistakes the Air Force made in awarding the deal to Northrop Grumman Corp. and its European partner over Boeing Co.

Boeing Co. said its second-quarter results would be hurt by a 22-cent-a-share charge for previously reported delays on a program to convert commercial aircraft to military surveillance planes. Boeing still forecasts profit of $5.70 to $5.85 a share this year and $6.80 to $7 in 2009, the Chicago-based company said.

At Boeing Co.'s sprawling satellite-making complex in El Segundo, engineers for decades pioneered space systems that helped vastly alter the way we communicate by telephone and watch television today. But in recent years, the workload has sputtered under a cloud of slow orders, and the aerospace giant is now hoping for a lifeline from an upcoming Pentagon contract potentially worth more than $15 billion.

A dozen Boeing Co. machinists huddled over an oil-drum fire in the chilly morning drizzle, hooting as white trucks periodically cruised past them and into the gates of the massive airplane assembly plant. Belonging to a North Carolina contractor, the trucks carried parts for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner -- which would be under construction inside were the union machinists not hurtling catcalls outside, locked in a seven-week-old strike that some estimate is costing Boeing $100 million a day.

Boeing Co. and machinists union leaders agreed on tentative terms for a contract that if approved by members would end the third-longest strike in the union's 73-year history and reopen the plane maker's closed factories. Agreement on a four-year contract, rather than the usual three years, would provide job security for machinists "and limit the amount of work outside vendors can perform in the workplace," the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said Monday.

After nearly 40 years of assembling fuselage sections for the world's largest flying passenger airliner, Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.'s sprawling Hawthorne factory appeared in danger of joining a long list of Southern California aerospace plants that have been shuttered in recent years. With orders for Boeing Co.'s 747 jumbo jet dwindling, the production rate steadily fell to one fuselage a month from a high of six a decade ago.

Boeing Co. may finally have won back some bragging rights. The world's second-largest commercial aircraft maker said Thursday that it booked 1,044 orders for its airplanes last year, setting a company record that is likely to help Boeing beat its European archrival Airbus for the first time since 2000. Airbus, which plans to release its year-end results Jan.

Northrop Grumman Corp. said it might withdraw from bidding on a program worth at least $10 billion to provide the Air Force with aerial refueling tankers because the bidding process may favor rival Boeing Co. Northrop, in a letter to Air Force program officials, said it had "fundamental concerns" that the selection criteria contained in the latest request for proposals might be biased against its proposed KC-30 aircraft.

Boeing Co. shares stumbled Monday after a Wall Street analyst said that aircraft orders might have peaked and that the company could face delays in producing the new 787 passenger jet. Last year, Boeing booked 1,044 orders for its airplanes, topping its previous record of 1,002 in 2005 and enabling the company to beat European archrival Airbus for the first time since 2000.