Through this business, Rockwell Collins provides a wide range of training systems, upgrades, modifications, curriculum development, electronically delivered learning, engineering and technical services for many military and commercial platforms. These platforms include the Bombardier Challenger 300 simulator, the U.S. Army’s Additional Black Hawk Flight Simulator (ABHFS) Program, the U.S. Navy’s P-3C Visual System Modifications and E-2C Hawkeye Weapon Systems Trainer, and the B-1 and B-52 Training Systems for the U.S. Air Force.

Our integration progress reflects the increased level of global support we are now positioned to provide our customers, said Tony Syme, vice president, Simulation & Training Solutions for Rockwell Collins.

The integrated development of avionics and simulation systems creates powerful new synergies that deliver more innovative solutions, said Collins Aviation Services Senior Vice President and General Manager Harry Gregory. Rockwell Collins is leveraging technology and open systems architecture to deliver simulation and training solutions that meet or exceed customer requirements.

Rockwell Collins acquired NLX in December 2003.

Designed for exceptional flexibility and realism, Sweden's Dynamic Flight Simulator (DFS) in Linkoping, Sweden, is believed to be the first fourth-generation device--a ground-based system capable of pulling gs and replicating modern tactical-aircraft flight conditions--deployed by an air force.

Such simulators are a fairly recent advancement, although several companies have been working on centrifuge-based systems for years. A handful of fourth-generation units are being marketed globally, and by all accounts, competition is fierce, with myriad claims and counterclaims (AW&ST Dec. 1, 2003, p. 70). However, one Swedish test pilot, who has evaluated most of the systems now available, said realism and fidelity vary considerably.

I had an opportunity to "fly" the Swedish air force's DFS at the Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) test and evaluation center here, and was impressed by how closely the system approximates a high-performance aircraft. There are unavoidable physical limitations, of course, but it was definitely the most realistic flight simulation I'd ever experienced.

Basically a fighter cockpit mock-up mounted on the end of a centrifuge arm, the Swedish DFS represents a quantum leap in fighter pilot training and flight physiology research capabilities. It was designed and built by California-based Wyle Laboratories, and boasts a number of features critical to emulating high-g flight, such as:

* A high-torque direct-current (DC) motor that drives the 30-ft. centrifuge arm.
* A large spherical gondola, suspended by gimbals and configured with Gripen cockpit displays and controls, and a modest three-screen visual array.
* A control system based on the Gripen--or other aircraft--aerodynamic model that accurately simulates a fighter's dynamic-response characteristics.
* Perceptual algorithms in the control system that "trick" a person's physiological sensors, providing a degree of realism that "simply is not possible in conventional centrifuges," according to a Wyle official.
* A closed-loop control mode, which allows a pilot to fly the DFS and fully command its motion. Preprogrammed modes are also available.
* The Swedish air force/Wyle Labor-atories Dynamic Flight Simulator features a 30-ft. arm and fully gimbaled gondola. Minimal lag and delay times, ensuring the simulator's g-response closely approximates an actual aircraft.

Wyle engineers set out to develop a centrifuge-based simulator tailored for training and evaluating pilots in an elevated-g environment, yet flexible enough to also conduct aeromedical research. Consequently, they focused on features that would ensure rapid response times.

"We wanted to give pilots the ability to 'fly' and interact with the environment rather than just be a passive [centrifuge] rider," said Will Roberts, program manager for Wyle Laboratories' DFS programs. "We've come a long way in being able to translate the six degrees-of-freedom you get in an aircraft into the three degrees-of-freedom that we can control in a centrifuge. It's not perfect, but we think it's pretty good. There's room for more research to make it even better."

Swedish air force (SAF) officials were prompted to invest in a high-g simulator when they acquired the JAS 39 Gripen, a modern 9g fighter capable of rapid g-onset (going from 1g to high-g loads in a very short time) and sustaining those levels. They recognized that aircraft and pilots could be lost to the "G-Loc" (g-induced loss of consciousness) phenomenon, where humans can quickly pass out when subjected to high gs. Incidents early in the Gripen program led SAF leaders to conclude that not enough research had been done in the area of high-g physiology. Consequently, they decided to develop world-class expertise in this arena--while still training SAF pilots to properly handle g-caused stresses inflight, noted Kent Engstrom, FMV program manager for DFS.

Research is needed to better understand physiological phenomena "the moment before G-Loc and the moment after [recovering] from G-Loc--how you regain psychomotor and cognitive abilities with various delays," said Leif Pettersson, an FMV test center operation engineer. "These are possibilities for research . . . that I don't think anybody has done before."

The system I "flew" was "mechanically unique," Roberts said. "The arm's structure is like a wing--hollow aluminum with a stressed skin. Other centrifuges use a box-beam construction. The stressed-skin [design] gives us a much better natural frequency, which allows us to do a lot of things without being disturbed by structural effects."

The lighter, stronger arm simplifies controlling g-onset rates, and keeps start/stop stresses lower, which enables the use of a smaller drive motor. Wyle chose a 1,900-kw. Westinghouse DC motor originally designed for steel mill applications, connected directly to the centrifuge-arm drive system. It delivers about 7 megawatts of peak power in approximately 100 millisec. when a pilot pulls sharply on the simulator's cockpit control stick, demanding a high g-onset rate.

"WE CAN GO FROM [ZERO] to maximum g-onset in about 120 millisec. with this motor," Roberts said. But because the high power demand is very brief, the motor doesn't overheat.

Before my DFS mission, a flight surgeon attached electrocardiogram sensors to my chest, allowing real-time monitoring of heart parameters. He assured me that was standard procedure. I also was fitted with a Swedish-type g-suit, then strapped into a Gripen ejection seat mounted in the DFS' gondola--a ball-type structure suspended at the end of the centrifuge arm.

The Swedish AF simulator/centrifuge gondola emulates a Gripen fighter cockpit with a three-screen out-the-window visual display. Pilots are routinely "wired" with sensors that monitor heart functions.

Up to 400 electrical power, video, computer, medical and other signals are transferred from the cockpit to a control room via numerous slip rings that also allow unrestricted rotation of the gondola and arm. Five channels of gases--such as oxygen--also are passed through a sophisticated slip-ring system.

Like all Swedish pilots who go through training in the DFS, I did not wear a helmet or mask, because controllers need to monitor facial expressions during high-g maneuvers. After a thorough briefing and cockpit preflight by Capt. Christopher Gruv, I was closed into the gondola, and controllers prepared for the "flight." Maj. P.A. Klingstrom, an aerospace physiologist pilot and training specialist, served as the mission controller, talking to me via intercom.

Initially, the centrifuge arm turned at a slow, steady speed, producing a 1.5g "steady state" or baseline. Inertial restrictions require that the arm be in motion before a pilot starts pulling high-onset gs. Rapid g-onset would demand almost infinite power to go from a dead stop to a 10g/sec. rate the system is specified to deliver. Roberts said the DFS has demonstrated a 14.5g/sec. rate with a full load, plus an additional 100 kg. (220 lb.) of weight.

I had been told to fly the simulator however I wanted, but with a couple of cautions--no rapid negative-g pushovers, and don't be too aggressive when rolling immediately from a right-bank high-g condition to a left-bank high-g maneuver. The system would respond, but these inputs would cause unneeded stress on its components.

I made a few gentle turns to get a feel for the Gripen flight controls, noting that the three-screen visual scene produced a comfortable perception that one was flying contact. Then I rolled into a steep turn and pulled on the stick, advancing the throttle a bit. The DFS responded instantly, smashing me into the seat. Over the next few minutes, I maneuvered in the low-g arena, eventually pulling up to 4.7g. I've pulled many more in actual aircraft, but never particularly enjoyed what some call the "practice bleeding" of high-g flight.

I was quickly convinced the DFS would respond rapidly to control inputs, and could easily deliver the requisite normal acceleration to produce tunnel vision and make me gray-out. I had no desire--or need--to demonstrate my limited "g-tolerance."

Flying daily in a tactical aircraft, a crewmember develops a capacity to handle high-g conditions. He instinctively tightens his legs and abdominal muscles, assisting the anaconda-like g-suit's inflation, which squeezes legs and abdomen. Pilots are also trained to perform a specific anti-g "straining maneuver" that involves short-pulse breathing, while keeping the lower body muscles tensed.

All this effort is essential to keep one's blood flowing to the head as g-loads increase. If blood drains from the cranium while pulling high gs, vision seems to close in from the edges, until it appears you're looking through a small tube. That's called tunnel vision. Higher gs--or relaxing at the wrong time--can close that tunnel completely, and the eyes-wide-open pilot sees nothing but a gray curtain. Objects are no longer visible, but he can still hear the radio and engine, and is still flying the aircraft. He's functioning, but just can't see anything.

At this point, a pilot or backseater is only a g or so away from having his world go completely dark, a condition known as "blackout." Then, he's no longer able to help himself or fly his aircraft. Recovery requires reducing g-loads on the body, but after blacking out, human beings are typically slow to respond. Many seconds or even a minute can pass before a pilot is really capable of controlling his aircraft properly.

The DFS is an effective means of training pilots to resist graying- or blacking out by properly performing the anti-g straining maneuver under controlled conditions. Some catch on faster than others, but all can be trained, according to Klingstrom, who has flown hundreds of high-g sorties in centrifuges. He's known here as "The G-Monster."

As mission controller, he next suggested I fly a tail-chase profile, presenting another aircraft in my simulated HUD. I was at the aircraft's 6 o'clock position, and my job was to stay on his tail as he maneuvered. I noted that the simulator's mechanization was so good that I felt as if I really were flying, pulling whatever gs were necessary to stay with the target as it accelerated, climbed, dived and turned sharply. The profile was an actual mission Klingstrom had flown in the DFS, where data were captured and "canned" as a target for training missions.

As long as I kept my head motionless, pressed against the seat headrest, the simulator closely replicated tactical flight, I felt. Experimenting a bit, I turned my head slightly to the left and right, and tilted it up and down. Immediately, my vestibular system sensed I was rotating. However, pilots are told that will happen--so don't do it.

However, rolling the "aircraft" and pitching up and down produced very realistic feelings of flight. The fully gimbaled gondola is unrestricted in pitch and roll, but sophisticated, well-tuned control algorithms are required to produce such realism.

"WE HAVE TO DO some strange things to . . . fool your vestibular system," Roberts said. For example, "when the arm speeds up, we compensate for the increased gs by pitching the seat forward, because the [human] vestibular system is sensitive to rotational acceleration. You stay aligned with the force vector.

"How fast we accelerate the arm, then accelerate the pitch and roll axes [simultaneously] is a big factor in the design," he added. "This is a simulator mounted on a centrifuge, not a centrifuge that happened to have a simulator in it, so that [required] a different approach. Getting the simulation right was [a priority]."

Maj. Richard Ljungberg, a Swedish test pilot, has flown many tedious hours in the DFS, trying to tweak and optimize those control algorithms to ensure the simulator closely approximates actual Gripen flight. "I've changed a lot of numbers [related to] movement in roll, pitch and delays. The biggest thing is g-onset response time, and the ability to control the centrifuge from low gs to high gs. If you have a long delay [between] pulling the stick and getting the gs, you learn the [wrong] response coordination. If you're at high gs, and you feel like you're starting to gray-out, and you unload [relax stick pressure], you want the machine to respond. If you unload and nothing happens, it's ugly." That can lead to negative training, doing more harm than good.

My flight was only about 30 min., but long enough to convince me that the DFS emulated high-g tactical flight quite well. Through clever algorithms and persistent refinement, the Wyle engineers and Swedish pilots assigned here have done a good job of simulating six-degrees-of-freedom flight.

Probably the most telling validation of DFS fidelity comes from SAF pilots who go through training here. After flying a tail-chase scenario and trying to shoot down the simulated target aircraft, pilots are informed their time is up. They often respond, "Just one more, OK?"

Normally, pilots hate simulator training. "I think we've come a long way, creating a centrifuge/simulator that pilots can actually enjoy flying," Ljungberg said. "Normally, when you go to a centrifuge, you're like a dog--just sitting there, trying to strain and survive the g-forces. But in this one, you're in control. Here, you pull gs the same way [you do] when you go out and fly. It's a good training tool."

The DFS also ensures pilots develop desirable habits in coordinating stick movement with anti-g straining maneuvers. About 60 pilots have been trained in the DFS, but the FMV/Wyle team here is continuing to refine both the initial and refresher programs.

However, they also see tremendous potential for serious physiological research. Ljungberg mentioned experiments to determine how a pilot's perception of color and his hearing degrade at high-g loads, for example. Combat scenarios involving target acquisition and tracking, missile-firing and other tasks can be explored to determine how pilots perceive an objective's location under high-g loads. Similarly, the position of cockpit controls, or even the color of head-up and head-down display symbology, might be altered as a result of research findings.

"The sky's the limit," Roberts said. "We're just barely getting started."

Boeing declined to say yesterday whether its board, which met Sunday and yesterday in Chicago, had given final approval to take orders for the plane. A second decision would be required before the 7E7 could go into production, but that would not be made before Boeing accumulated orders for the jet, nicknamed the Dreamliner.

Boeing said any announcement would come today in Seattle, where it was based until a few years ago. The company was widely expected to announce its plans to employees at Payne Field, the center of its operations there, and then hold a news conference.

The meeting was the first for Boeing's new chief executive, Harry C. Stonecipher. He came out of retirement to succeed Philip M. Condit, who resigned on Dec. 1 in the wake of a scandal involving a fuel-tanker contract with the Pentagon.

Officials in Everett, Wash., Boeing's main manufacturing site, are eagerly awaiting word from Chicago headquarters on the proposed jet, which is designed to be 20 percent more efficient than the Boeing 757 it would replace. "We are on standby," said Kate Reardon, a spokeswoman for the Everett mayor's office.

Local officials have been lobbying for months to win the final assembly work for the plane, which has a sharply curved roof and a sloping nose. Instead of being produced under one roof, the 7E7 would be built in a modular assembly process.

Crucial pieces, like the wings, fuselage and tail, are being parceled out in sections to various plants in the United States, Canada and Australia. Other work has been awarded to companies in Japan and Italy.

All those sections would ultimately come together in an assembly project resulting in 800 to 1,200 jobs, a fraction of the 40,000 jobs Boeing has eliminated in the United States this year in the wake of slumping industry traffic and deep losses since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

None of Boeing's American customers have yet expressed interest in the jet, which will seat 300 or more passengers in a one-class configuration with two aisles, compared with 280 passengers in the single cabin of a 757, which has one aisle. And just two international carriers, Japan Air Lines and Emirates, have indicated that they would like to discuss the plane with Boeing, once it decides to go forward with production.

Boeing has built more than 1,000 757 jets, but the last will be built in 2004. It decided to discontinue the 757 in October, only hours after Continental Airlines scrapped plans to buy 11 of the jets, ordering smaller 737's instead.

Nonetheless, Boeing executives were expected to go ahead with the 7E7 project, simply because they would otherwise see Airbus Industrie, their global rival, move out of sight in a vapor trail ahead of them.

That may already be happening. The first 7E7 jet would go into service in 2008, while the Airbus A330, the 7E7's competition, is already in the fleets of Northwest Airlines, China Airlines and Austrian Airlines, among others.

Boeing has not introduced a jet since the 777 in 1990. Analysts say Boeing may have lost valuable time in the 90's working on two other, flashier jets that it ultimately canceled: the Sonic Cruiser, a supersonic plane, and the 747X, which would have been the successor to the 747 and a competitor to the giant A380 that Airbus is marketing.

On Monday, Airbus said Malaysia Airlines ordered six A380 jets, bringing total orders to 129 planes from 11 airlines. The A380, which would seat 555 passengers, will be delivered to customers in 2007.

Boeing should know by spring whether it has enough 7E7 orders to begin production, said David Fitzpatrick, a partner with Deloitte & Touche USA in Seattle. At minimum, it needs about 100 orders, and ideally 200 to 250, to move ahead, he said.

He said he did not think that airlines' dearth of interest now necessarily spelled trouble. "You can bet that there are people waiting to commit to this," Mr. Fitzpatrick said. "In the first few months, they should accumulate a good book of orders."

Airlines that make deals first often have an opportunity to get planes at a lower price than Boeing will try to charge later, when the plane's viability has been proved, analysts said. Boeing has not disclosed what a 7E7 would cost, or what kind of profit margins it can expect on the jet. Analysts estimate that it is spending a minimum of $7 billion on the project, and that it will probably earn an operating profit of 4 percent to 5 percent, half what Boeing earned in its most profitable years.

Aircraft manufacturers look at projects like the 7E7 as long-term investments, said Roman Szuper, a credit analyst with Standard & Poor's. Like the 757, which went into service in 1982, Boeing would be expected to build the 7E7 for the next 20 years, he said.

"If the decision is correct,'' Mr. Szuper said, "they can pick up market share lost to Airbus." That company, a European consortium, is expected to pass Boeing for the first time in 2004 to become the world's biggest commercial aircraft maker.

But he added, "If the decision is wrong, it could be very costly," not just for Boeing but for airlines that buy the plane. While the 7E7's sleek appearance and interior comfort will undoubtedly appeal to passengers, he said, airlines will place a higher priority on an attractive bottom line.

"The shape and features are a good thing," Mr. Szuper said. "But they have to have good economics and efficiencies."

"We're confident that there's going to be a U.S. Air Force 767 program," Mark Kronenberg, vice president, International Business Development for the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, told Reuters.

"Obviously right now it's under review. OSD (Office of Secretary of Defense) is looking at it. Air Force is looking at it and we're cooperating with both fully," Kronenberg said.

The New York Times reported on Saturday the U.S. Air Force's top acquisitions official urged the quick signing of the contract with Boeing even after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed concern about improprieties.

Citing internal e-mail messages, the Times report said that Dr. Marvin Sambur, the acquisitions official, several months earlier had also forwarded to top Boeing executives copies of internal Pentagon communications outlining the negotiating strategy for the contract to lease and then buy 100 modified refueling planes.

Those messages were sent in April and May, the Times said, before Boeing and the Pentagon had reached an agreement on the controversial tanker-leasing deal.

Critics have portrayed the deal as costly, unnecessary and unseemly. Two top Boeing officials were fired after what the company called "compelling evidence" came to light of misconduct on the officials' parts regarding the relationship between the aircraft giant and the Pentagon.

Boeing's chief executive, Philip Condit, resigned on Monday over the controversy. He was replaced by Harry Stonecipher.

Kronenberg told Reuters that the resignation of Condit would not have an effect on the company's overall strategy.

"Despite the changes in the leadership of the Boeing company over the past couple of weeks, the overall direction of the company has not changed. We have a sound business plan which is both on the commercial sector and the strong defense space sector and we think that's the way to go," he said.

"In terms of leadership itself, Harry Stonecipher announced the leadership team last week. Jim Albaugh was one of that team and continues as president CEO of the Integrated Defense Systems Company," Kronenberg said.

Douglas Groseclose, a senior sales vice president at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told Reuters that the pause in tanker negotiations would have no immediate effect on the 767 line.

"There is a possibility that if demand starts to erode or go down we would take a look at things," he said.

"But not yet. Right now we're pretty much locked in what we're building today," Groseclose said, but declined to give out current production rates.

Both Boeing executives were speaking on the sidelines of a news conference to kick off the Dubai Air Show this week.

The world's largest plane maker said the pause would not affect its Middle East market, where it is vying to meet the challenge of rival Airbus with the launch of a new luxury plane dubbed the 7E7 Dreamliner.

Boeing estimates the Middle East market will be worth some $10 billion over the next five years.

Boeing said it was also in discussions with officials in Iraq (news - web sites) which is rebuilding its infrastructure after the U.S.-led war that ousted President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

The centre is also the first outside North America to offer pilot and maintenance training for the Hawker 800/800XP and the Gulfstream IV and V full flight simulators, and it will be adding a second Boeing 737NG/BBJ simulator to meet customer demand.

His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and the UAE's Minister of Defence, officially inaugurated the centre. He was accompanied by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates; and Derek H. Burney, CAE's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Also attending the ceremony were VIPs and leading members of the international aviation industry.

The three-storey state-of-the-art facility is the result of an agreement signed in 2001 between Emirates and CAE. The 80,000-square-foot building is located next to Dubai International Airport. It is expected to employ more than 100 people by mid-2004.

The total investment from both parties is some $US100 million under a 10-year agreement. The centre's customers had been training previously at a facility in the Dubai Airport Free Zone.

Sheikh Ahmed commented: 'Emirates is pleased to be part of this jointly-operated centre which has been at the forefront of the development of aviation training in the Gulf.

'This facility heralds a new era in aviation in the Middle East as the first flight training centre with dually approved type-rating. Our colleagues in the aviation industry, both within the region and further afield in Europe, Asia and Africa now have convenient access to the world's highest-possible training certifications.'

'When CAE signed this agreement with Emirates, it signified a strategic move for CAE to expand its training network worldwide,' said Derek H. Burney. 'Today's ceremony speaks volumes about the success of this venture. Most important is that we are providing greater value to the region's aircraft operators by offering the highest-quality, fully certified, training closer to their home base.'

The centre, which currently houses five full-flight simulators, can train up to 4,000 pilots annually. Its current commercial and business-jet airline customers include Arabasco, Emirates, Jet Aviation, Kuwait Airways, Middle East Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways and Royal Jet.

The second Boeing 737NG/BBJ simulator will be installed in spring 2004.

When the new simulator is in operation, Emirates-CAE Flight Training will offer training on two Boeing 737NGs/BBJs, a convertible Hawker 800/800XP, a Gulfstream IV, a Gulfstream V, an Airbus A330/A340 and an Airbus A319/A320/A321/ACJ.

The Gulfstream devices and the second Boeing 737NG/BBJ will have a CAE Sim XXI™ platform, which is CAE's latest simulator technology designed to simplify assembly, test and integration, and to reduce life-cycle costs.

According to Dave Barette, the centre's Managing Director and an 18-year CAE employee: 'The centre will showcase CAE's latest technologies, including the integrated procedures trainer from the CAE Simfinity™ line of products and services, as well as multimedia classrooms and briefing-debriefing rooms.'

He added that the centre is conveniently located and offers all the service amenities that will help pilots focus on training, leaving all other details to the centre's dedicated client services staff.

The Emirates Group comprises Emirates Airline, Dnata (the largest travel services provider in the Middle East), and a number of commercial relationships, including the Emirates-CAE Flight Training Centre. Emirates, the world's fastest-growing intercontinental full service airline, flies to 71 destinations in 50 countries, and operates a fleet of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, with an average age of just three years.

CAE offers aviation training to commercial, regional and business-jet operators in its global network of training centres, which operates more than 90 full-flight simulators, with 20 locations on four continents.

CAE is a leading provider of integrated training solutions and advanced simulation and controls technologies to civil aviation, military and marine customers. The company generates annual revenues in excess of C$1 billion and employs about 6,000 people in Canada, the United States and around the globe.

CAE is at booth No. E846 and Emirates at booth No. W520 at Dubai 2003, the 8th International Aerospace Exhibition, from 7th to 11th December.

New CEO Harry Stonecipher, who was rushed back from retirement in Florida to restore order to the embattled aerospace manufacturer, said Monday that answering those questions -- and fixing Boeing's dented reputation -- will be his chief objective.

At risk is the fate of the controversial $17 billion contract Boeing won this fall to have the government acquire 100 of its 767 jets for refueling tankers, as well as other contracts in its huge defense business.

"Getting the tanker program going and reassuring the government that we are not only compliant but an exemplary supplier is one of the first, foremost and immediate tasks that I have," said Stonecipher, who had retired last year. "This hiccup we've had will cause us to have to do a lot of reassuring with the government."

The 67-year-old former president of the company was asked to return by Boeing's board, where he has served as a director since joining Boeing from McDonnell Douglas when the two companies merged in 1997. Also, former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Lewis Platt, who serves on Boeing's board, was named as non-executive chairman as the company split Condit's former duties in two.

The legislation authorizing Boeing's tanker contract with the Pentagon was signed by President Bush last week after it won approval in Congress, but it could be delayed from being carried out if Congress calls for additional hearings.

Two critics of the deal -- Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois -- already called last Friday for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to postpone the deal in light of the recent firings of two Boeing executives.

Those dismissals were made Nov. 24 after Boeing said it learned in an internal inquiry that chief financial officer Mike Sears had negotiated to hire Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun at a time when she was in a position to influence military contracts involving the company.

The Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General is looking into allegations that Druyun acted improperly in giving Boeing financial information about a competing bid by Airbus.

Platt stressed that "nothing whatsoever" had been found implicating Condit in the ethical issues that resulted in the firings.

But the tanker dispute isn't the only controversy to have marred Condit's tenure.

Most recently, the Pentagon punished Boeing for stealing trade secrets from rival Lockheed Martin to help win rocket contracts. Boeing has been indefinitely banned from bidding on military satellite-launching contracts, which has already cost it seven launches worth about $1 billion.

Seven months before that, the General Accounting Office found that Boeing had obtained and misused proprietary information from rival Raytheon as they competed for a missile-defense contract.

Condit, 62, said he ended his 38-year career with the company to try to prevent it from getting "bogged down" after a year of upheaval.

"In the end, I concluded that the controversies and distractions of the past year were obscuring the great accomplishments and performance of this company," he said on a conference call.

While the defense business has prospered, however, Condit also has been criticized in some quarters for ceding the market-share lead in commercial airplane manufacturing to Europe's Airbus while failing to see a single new airplane program launched at Boeing during seven-plus years at the helm.

The focus on defense helped cushion the blow from the aviation slump that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but leaves Boeing facing an uncertain future in commercial jets, even if it goes ahead with the mid-range 7E7 jet that the board is close to signing off on.

#2Once the commercial airplane market recovers and some of these controversies around the space and defense business subside, I think the epitaph for Phil Condit will be one that is positive," said analyst Peter Jacobs, who follows the company for Ragen MacKenzie.

"The only chink in Phil's armor is that there are a slew of controversies about ethical behavior that happened on his watch, and there's really no excuse for that" Jacobs said.

Even Boeing backers in Washington are hesitant to say the company's troubles in the tanker controversy are over.

"I hope this is the end of it," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., a senior member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and leading proponent of the tanker deal. "But I don't know. There are still other investigations by the IG (inspector general) and internally by Boeing that are under way. We'll have to wait and see how that turns out."

Wall Street observers said the naming of Stonecipher, known as a no-nonsense executive who keeps close tabs on costs, should help Boeing improve its battered image in Washington, where suspicions that cronyism and insider deals are rife in the defense-contracting business have only increased in recent months.

As part of the reshuffling of duties, Stonecipher plans to reduce his executive council -- those who will directly report to him -- to 12, down from the 29 who reported to Condit.

The company, the world's largest aerospace company, called Harry C. Stonecipher, who led the McDonnell Douglas Corporation into a merger with Boeing six years ago, out of retirement to become its new chief executive. Mr. Stonecipher, 67, said his No. 1 priority would be to "restore credibility" with the Defense Department and Boeing's civilian customers.

Mr. Condit's departure comes just a week after the company dismissed its chief financial officer, Michael M. Sears, and another senior executive he helped recruit from the Pentagon. Their business dealings over a proposed $20 billion contract to supply refueling tankers to the Air Force are now being investigated. Earlier this year, the Pentagon also penalized Boeing's satellite operations after finding that the company had stolen documents from a competitor, the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Mr. Condit's resignation reflects the struggles of a company, long admired as one of the greatest American industrial successes, as it tries to expand its military business to compensate for losses to a European rival, Airbus, in commercial aircraft. It brings an abrupt end to a 38-year career at Boeing that was crowned by an ascension to chief executive in 1996.

"Our challenge is to straighten out the reputation of the company," Mr. Stonecipher, a former president of Boeing who retired 18 months ago, said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. Unlike Mr. Condit, he will not be the company's chairman. That position was assumed by Lewis E. Platt, the retired chairman and chief executive of the Hewlett-Packard Company, who joined the Boeing board four years ago.

When Mr. Condit, now 62, took over, Boeing was clearly outpacing Airbus. But Airbus has eaten away at Boeing's lead and is poised to pass it, and the decline in commercial aviation after the Sept. 11 attacks has only worsened the situation. In the last few years, Boeing has laid off 30,000 workers and shut several production lines.

As recently as 2001, Boeing produced more than 500 airplanes for commercial customers. But that number is expected to fall to fewer than 300 this year. Many of Boeing's loyal customers have made purchases from Airbus as the European company continues to push forward with new types of planes — like a 555-seat jumbo jet — after Boeing decided to step back from the jumbo jet business as well as other long-range jetliners.

Where commercial aircraft once accounted for the bulk of the company's business, now, for the first time in the company's history, military contracts are expected to account for more than half of Boeing's business by next year.

At the top of the list is the $20 billion contract for Boeing to supply aerial refueling tankers to the Air Force. For months, that contract has come under attack as financially beneficial to Boeing at the expense of taxpayers.

Yet as information emerged that Boeing's ousted chief financial officer, Michael M. Sears, had been talking to Darleen Druyun, the former Pentagon official, about taking a job at Boeing at the same time that Ms. Druyun was representing the Pentagon in financial negotiations with Boeing over the tanker, the deal ran into even more trouble.

After the firings of Mr. Sears and Ms. Druyun, the secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, asked the Pentagon to take a second look at the deal, and prominent senators, among them John McCain of Arizona, have stepped up their criticism.

But even bigger military programs are on the line, among them a potential $90 billion contract for the Future Combat Systems program, a sweeping effort to redesign Army weapons. In addition, Boeing produces aircraft for the Pentagon like the F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet, the F-15 Eagle fighter-bomber, the C-17 Globemaster transport plane and the AH-64D Apache helicopter. Boeing also has several other space projects, including making communications satellites and Delta rockets. With Lockheed Martin, it works on the space shuttle.

Last July, Boeing was denied more than $1 billion in Pentagon orders and was suspended from some missile-defense contracts after it was found to have been in possession of proprietary documents from its rival, Lockheed Martin.

In yesterday's conference call, Mr. Condit said the decision to leave had been his and it followed about a week and a half of lengthy discussions with the Boeing board.

"The decision to submit my resignation came after a great deal of soul-searching," Mr. Condit said. "But I ultimately concluded that it was the best decision for the good of the company."

Mr. Stonecipher indicated that he would not be an interim chief executive and that Boeing's mandatory retirement rules had been waived to bring him back.

"I will be here as long as the board puts up with me or until my health deteriorates," he said. "Hopefully, none of those items will happen at any time soon."

Washington military analysts said Mr. Condit's departure would send a strong signal to a Pentagon that takes ethical lapses seriously. But Wall Street analysts said that many of the company's core issues — mainly, the steady loss in business to Airbus — remain. In addition, one important strategic decision for the company, whether to start building a 250-passenger airplane now called the 7E7 Dreamliner, is coming before the board within two weeks and will be a first test of Mr. Stonecipher's commitment to the company's commercial side of the business.

"Boeing is more than in the penalty box with the Pentagon," said Charles Gabriel, an analyst with Prudential Securities. "They have got to send a signal that the problem was deep and that they needed to cut the cancer."

Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a northern Virginia research group, said Mr. Condit's departure "is not about Boeing's business, but is about Boeing's reputation."

"There were almost certain to have been back-channel discussions between the secretary of defense and Air Force that indicated they were not comfortable doing business with Phil Condit in the future," Mr. Thompson said. At the same time, Mr. Thompson said, the foray into military business that Mr. Condit oversaw could well pay off handsomely for the company.

Boeing' stock closed yesterday at $38.02, down 37 cents. During Mr. Condit's tenure as chief executive, Boeing's stock dropped over 6 percent.

In some ways, Mr. Condit's resignation is another step in the process of integrating McDonnell Douglas and Boeing and represents the culmination of a power struggle between the McDonnell and Boeing sides of the business.

As chief executive of McDonnell Douglas, Mr. Stonecipher pulled the company out of the commercial aviation business and directed it more toward military orders, including many of the programs, like the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the C-17 transport, that have become Boeing's bread-and-butter products.

In the conference call Mr. Stonecipher said he expected that Boeing's recent problems with the tanker would be no more than a "hiccup," that the Future Combat Systems program would go as planned and that the company's suspension from certain missile-defense programs would soon be lifted.

"I don't think either program will be scrapped," Mr. Stonecipher said of the tanker plan and the Future Combat Systems program. "This little hiccup we have — well, it's not little, it's a hiccup — will cause us to have to do a lot of reassuring to the government. We have to look them in the eye and address each and every one of their concerns."

Lawrence J. Korb, a former Pentagon official and now senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington research group, said that in awarding contracts the Pentagon looks at probity along with price. "There's a subjective evaluation that comes into Pentagon decision making," Mr. Korb said. "Once they have doubts about a company, it's hard to get a contract."

On the commercial front, though Mr. Stonecipher was said to be a lukewarm supporter of the 7E7 Dreamliner project, he said yesterday that he was "looking forward to going ahead with that program."

The Pentagon has not yet signed the deal with Boeing for the lease of 20 and the purchase of up to 80 767's as aerial refueling tankers, pending the review ordered last Friday by Mr. Rumsfeld.

Even though the tanker deal was authorized under an appropriations bill signed by President Bush on Nov. 24, Senator John Warner of Virginia, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said his panel will hold a hearing on the deal next year.

Philip E. Coyle III, an assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, said Mr. Condit's resignation "will help a lot." Both the tanker episode and the accusations of theft from Lockheed were clearly hurting their business, said Mr. Coyle, now a senior adviser at the Center for Defense Information, a Washington research group.