How Boeing Got Going

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Demand for aircraft is now. "This is the first simultaneous civil and military upturn I've seen in 20 years," says Aboulafia. "And the angle of that upturn is very steep." The International Air Transport Association predicts that 2007 will be the first profitable year for airlines since 2000. True, net profit of about $5 billion is paltry at best in a $470 billion industry, but it puts the airlines in a buying mood. Boeing is sold out for both 2007 and 2008 and expects to deliver 445 airplanes this year and 520 next year.

Want to buy a Dreamliner? Sorry, production is spoken for until 2015--underlining the company's need for a speedy new production line, since it could sell more if it could make more. Not long ago, it seemed as if Boeing couldn't make anything. Tim Clark, president of Emirates, said in January 2005, "Boeing has struggled with the development work needed to take the company into the 21st century." Boeing has now arrived, and so will the 787--the first Dreamliner goes to All Nippon Airways in May. Sure, Boeing's CEO, Jim McNerney, worries about the 787 every day. "Only the paranoid survive when you are doing these airplane programs," he has said. Yet it looks as if Boeing, by letting go of some of the details and focusing on the big picture, has eased its ride to the top.