Published January 2003

Boeing opts for
traditional-style jet
over Sonic Cruiser

By Bryan Corliss
Herald Business Writer

The Boeing Co. will pursue a highly efficient, traditionally styled jet rather than the proposed new Sonic Cruiser, the company’s Commercial Airplanes chief confirmed in December.

The new plane will look like a scaled-down 777, but incorporate Sonic Cruiser technology that will allow it to fly farther and faster than the similarly sized 767, Alan Mulally told reporters during a year-end news conference Dec. 20.

Boeing will continue to refine the design over the coming year, with an eye toward a formal launch in 2004, which would put the plane in the sky by 2008.

“We’re committed to the future, and we’re going to move forward,” Mulally said. “We’re really excited about it.”

Boeing is a year or two away from making decisions on which components it will build itself, and which it will buy from suppliers, Mulally said.

And while the jet’s design team will remain in Everett, a decision on where the plane will be assembled also is a couple of years away, he said. It’s possible Boeing could decide to build the plane outside the Puget Sound area.

Boeing has been critical of the state’s business climate and of the Legislature’s decision to defer a proposed gas tax for highway improvements to voters, who this fall rejected Referendum 51.

As for the new plane, Mulally said the airlines are “very enthusiastic.” Support for the idea “is coming from everybody.”

There’s a potential market to sell 2,000 to 3,000 of the planes, Mulally said, which could replace a range of 200-plus-seat jets now in service.

Boeing has not picked a name for the new plane, and for now is referring to it as the “new middle-of-the-market airplane,” Mulally said.

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