Beyond that, Mr. Stonecipher will have to prove whether, as an executive with a long background in the military industry, he has the skills to help Boeing battle its considerable competition in commercial aviation, namely Airbus, the European aviation consortium, which is on the verge of surpassing Boeing in unit sales to become the world's largest aerospace company.
Formerly British Aerospace, BAE produced one of the first pressurized jetliners in 1949, developed the innovative Harrier vertical takeoff jet and once owned 20% of the commercial aviation consortium Airbus.
This nonprofit aviation industry consortium provides coupons for specially priced introductory lessons ( $35) at 1,600 North American flight schools.
That plan, however, may be interrupted by the Russian defense ministry's desire to create a single national aviation and aircraft-building consortium, to better compete against EADS, the parent of Airbus, in Europe and against Boeing in the United States.
At the urging of the U.S. government after its entry into World War I, a consortium of aviation companies banded together and brokered an agreement by which all members could pay a fee to license the patented technology.
Boeing is competing with Dassault Aviation of France, the multination Eurofighter consortium and Rosoboronexport, a Russian state trading company, for a $4 billion, 40-jet order from South Korea.
The sale last year of a minority stake to a French aerospace consortium led by Aerospatiale Matra and Dassault Aviation, was part of this push.
The Consortium membership includes invited airlines, aircraft manufacturers, aviation consultants, information technology suppliers, airports and infrastructure providers, labor groups and government agencies.
Sector Aviation is a consortium of businessmen with a background in aviation, including a group known previously as Granite Aviation.
The GE-Honeywell juggernaut could specifically threaten Airbus Industrie, the European consortium that is staunchly competitive with Boeing, the U.S. aviation giant.
Documents seen by The IoS confirm that specialist engineers who have worked on major aviation projects in North and Latin America have been asked to evaluate flat tracts of land that the consortium thinks might be suitable for such a huge project.
