Cleverer still, however, is the radio-bridging technology the company is developing under a military contract.
The Gould proposal became the basis of a classified military contract.
General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas sued, causing the largest military contract dispute ever.
No military contract has stirred as much rancor between Boeing and Airbus as the refueling tanker.
The company had been hoping to position itself to compete for a lucrative military contract to build all-terrain forklifts.
The company's first military contract was in 1940, to build a Naval air station in Corpus Christi, Tex.
Davidson Goldin, a Patriarch spokesman, said the firm and Ms. Tilton did not know Mr. Vergez before MD Helicopters won the military contract in 2011.
But Boeing lost the military contract to a rival, and the decision was made to adapt the prototype for civilian use.
Speaking to a Defense Department procurement conference in 1999, Mr. Stonecipher said he would never protest if Boeing lost out fairly to a competitor on a military contract.
Mr. Mbeki fired Mr. Zuma as deputy president in 2005 after investigators tied Mr. Zuma to a bribery scandal involving a multibillion-dollar military contract.
The market's biggest decliner was the Boeing Company, which lost what may be the largest military contract in history on Friday.
