First Wedgetail rollout

The first Australian Wedgetail aircraft rolled out Oct. 31 during a ceremony at the Boeing plant in Renton, Wash. The 737-700 will be transformed into a platform for an Airborne Early Warning and Control System. Modifications to the aircraft begin in 2003. Both Australia and Turkey have signed billion-dollar contracts with Boeing Integrated Defense Systems to develop AEW&C systems.



Fourth member of 777 family debuts

Boeing unveiled the fourth member of the Boeing 777 family, the 777-300ER (extended range) jetliner last month before a crowd of more than 4,000 employees, suppliers, partners and airline customers at its Everett, Wash., production facility. Boeing also broadcast the ceremony live over the Web to thousands of viewers worldwide.

"Our original vision of growing the 777 program into a family of five models that safely and efficiently serves the needs of our customers is becoming a reality," said Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The 777-300ER is the first of two Longer-Range 777 models Boeing will complete. Boeing and General Electric Aircraft Engines launched both the 777-300ER and a second jetliner, the 777-200LR (longer-range), in February 2000. Boeing created the new models to meet demand for airplanes with additional flexibility to serve longer non-stop routes.



Long Beach brings work in-house

More than 600 members of the Boeing team in Long Beach, Calif., celebrated in mid-November the acquisition of a new work responsibility—the wing-join step in 717 production—that will now be done in-house instead of by suppliers.

Speaking to the crowd, 717 program Vice President and Long Beach Site Manager Jim Phillips applauded his team for all the progress made toward transforming the facility into a Lean manufacturing site and achieving continuous improvement.

Phillips, joined by Bill Schultz, president of Local 148 of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, also praised the team for the success they had achieved in launching the 717 moving assembly line and reducing wasted production movement. The 717 team also has developed a new delivery process that cuts costs for both the program and customers, slashed facilities and maintenance expenses, and implemented changes that help suppliers lower prices.



'Frontiers' to replace 'FORUM' magazine

FORUM magazine recipients will be seeing Boeing Frontiers in its place starting this month. Boeing previously circulated FORUM to airline customers; it contained news and information about Boeing Commercial Airplanes' business initiatives, products and services. Each monthly issue of Frontiers includes the same information plus detailed coverage of Boeing's other business units.



ETHICS

The Office of Ethics & Business Conduct can be reached at 1-888-970-7171; Mail Code: 14-14; Fax: 1-888-970-5330; TDD/TTY: 1-800-617-3384; e-mail: ethicsline.ethics@boeing.com; People with access to the Boeing internal network can find more information at: http://www-co.boeing.com/ethics/Home.htm



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