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- South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley considers the bid to unionize workers at Boeing Co's North Charleston plant a threat to one of her state's corporate crown jewels, and she is turning to radio, speeches and social media to denounce the campaign. "We don't need their bully middleman tactics between our associates and their employer," she wrote on Twitter last month. It was a message in keeping with Haley's previous declarations that she is a "union buster" who wears high heels to kick out organized labor "thugs" seeking to gain a foothold in the state. The April 22 union vote...

A new patent granted to aircraft, defense and security company Boeing is taking its cues from science fiction. Just like the glowing energy shields seen protecting troops, machines and even spacecraft in Star Wars and Star Trek, the design -- named "Method and system for shockwave attenuation via electromagnetic arc" -- uses energy to deflect potential damage.

A machinists union is seeking an election at a Boeing plant in South Carolina. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is asking a federal agency to set an election so more than 2,400 Boeing production workers in South Carolina can vote on whether to form a union. Fred Wszolek, spokesman for the Workforce Fairness Institute, says the move is surprising. "It's interesting that it's a much smaller number than the actual number of Boeing employees in Charleston. It's only about a third," he observes. "They must have defined some sort of micro-union that they think they can win...

|| By FITSNEWS || Wisconsin governor Scott Walker scored a big win in early-voting South Carolina this week … No, it wasn’t a major endorsement … or a smart staffing move … or another solid early polling performance in the Palmetto State. Walker – whose national profile was built by battling Big Labor – won thanks to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ petition to unionize Boeing’s North Charleston, S.C. plant. All of a sudden South Carolina – which boasts one of the nation’s lowest unionization rates – finds itself in the thick of a major organized labor...

Boeing and Saab in February demonstrated a new version of Boeing’s small diameter bomb that can be safely fired from a ground artillery system. Now, they have to find their first customer, executives said March 10. The companies completed three successful launches of the weapon last month during tests in Vidsel, Sweden, said Beth Kluba, Boeing’s vice president of weapons and missile systems. They could deliver the capability as early as 18 months after the first contract is signed. "We did a series of shots over a couple of weeks and had success with each one of them,” she said....

China's new superjet will take to the skies for the first time in test flights later this year. The C919, built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), will be the country's most ambitious effort to date to break into the global aircraft market. The latest pictures have shown the final assembly work on the nation's first single-aisle airliner, which is currently under construction in Shanghai, is well underway.

Improving fuel efficiency, even by one percent, on the world's most popular plane makes a huge difference. After achieving success with the first 737 winglet, the team was challenged with finding ways to make the 737 MAX even more efficient. Boeing video at the source

The Willys MB – better known as the original jeep – was a game-changer during World War II. Small, agile, versatile and durable, jeeps were easy to deploy, easy to operate and easy to maintain, making them perhaps the Allies’ most important battlefield equipment. More than 70 years later, US aircraft maker and defence supplier Boeing has revisited the original jeep’s winning formula in a stocky little bruiser of a car called the Phantom Badger.

Boeing (NYSE: BA ) extended its sales lead over archrival Airbus (NASDAQOTH: EADSY ) in December. In its latest update on airplane orders, released last week, Boeing confirmed that 2014 "gross" orders for commercial aircraft reached 1,423 by mid-December, versus 1,328 planes for Airbus (at last report). After cancellations -- 106 at Boeing, but nearly three times as many at Airbus -- the U.S. aircraft maker's lead over its European rival only got bigger. This is good news for Boeing -- but, as we'll see in a moment, it might be bad news for one of Boeing's favorite customers: the...

BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO) is working with Boeing Co (BA.N) on Boeing's high-security Android-based smartphone, the Canadian mobile technology company's chief executive said on Friday. The Boeing Black phone being developed by the Chicago-based aerospace and defense contractor, which is best known for jetliners and fighter planes, can self-destruct if it is tampered with.

NASA's picture-perfect Orion launch to Mars was all the rage last week. Praise was heaped upon key NASA contractors Boeing (NYSE: BA ) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) -- and deservedly so. Between Orion's success, and the companies' announcement that their United Launch Alliance joint venture will develope a "next-generation liquid oxygen/hydrocarbon first stage" rocket to power launches to near-Earth orbit, Boeing and Lockheed are on a hot streak. But amid all the hullaballoo at ULA, you might have forgotten there's another space launch company that is building even more innovative products. Its name is SpaceX. It goes up,...

Ferguson protesters have released a list of target rally sites and intended hits, and among them: Boeing and Anheuser Busch, companies that have little to do with Officer Darren Wilson’s August shooting of teen Michael Brown. Also on the list: Emerson Electric, a company that’s been a Ferguson fixture for more than five decades, The Gateway Pundit reported.

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands of cellphones through fake communications towers deployed on airplanes, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is snagging a large number of innocent Americans, according to people familiar with the operations. The U.S. Marshals Service program, which became fully functional around 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports, with a flying range covering most of the U.S. population, according to people familiar with the program. Planes are equipped with devices—some known as “dirtboxes” to law-enforcement officials because of the initials of the Boeing Co. unit that produces them—which...

The U.S. Marine Corps will phase out the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump jet by 2025 — about five years earlier than planned — and will instead extend the life of its fleet of aging Boeing F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters, according to the service’s recently released 2015 aviation plan. In previous years, the service had said it would replace its increasingly older fleet of original model Boeing F/A-18A – D Hornet strike fighters before retiring the Harriers before replacing both fighters with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Now, the Harrier will be retired in 2025...

Washington (AsiaNews / Agencies) - For the first time in 35 years, Boeing has sold aircraft components to Iran. Breaking the news, the industry itself stated that it has sold "aircraft manuals, drawings, and navigation charts and data" to Iran Air. The sale, which has yielded Boeing 120 thousand dollars, is the first since 1979, the year of the "hostage crisis" which was followed by United States sanctions on all trade useful to aviation. The sale, said the company, took place between June and September this year, producing 12 thousand dollars in profits and was possible thanks to a US...

According to a new NASA study, when America goes back to the moon and on to Mars it will do so with hardware that looks very familiar. NASA has decided to build two new launch systems - both of which will draw upon existing Space Shuttle hardware. One vehicle will be a cargo-only heavy lifter, the other will be used to launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The Plan NASA has essentially completed its Exploration Systems Architecture Study - also known as the "60 day study". Briefings of the study’s conclusions and recommendations will be conducted by Doug Stanley. Stanley led...

The Air Force's secret mini-shuttle has finally returned to earth after spending nearly two years on a classified mission in space, military officials said today. The X37-B space plane touched down this morning at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after spending a staggering 674 days aloft. One of the few things known about the space plane's classified missions is that it can stay in orbit for extended periods of time. Measuring 29 feet in length and having a 15-foot wingspan, the unmanned re-usable orbital test vehicle looks like a miniature version of NASA's now retired space shuttles. Like the...

<p>Sydney - A robot US space plane, X37B, has just completed a record feat of endurance, a whole year in space. This rather evasively publicized major achievement is a first for any kind of reusable spacecraft.</p> <p>It’s also a reassuring achievement at a time when many commentators (me for one) were wondering if the US was playing with a full deck on its space program capabilities. The apparently blasé decommissioning of the space shuttles, given the very high reliance of the US military on space infrastructure like spy satellites, etc. was looking very much like an unbelievably stupid own goal.</p>

The U.S Air Force’s highly secret unmanned space plane will land in June - ending a year-long mission in orbit. The experimental Boeing X37-B has been circling Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and was due to land in California in December. It is now expected to land in mid to late June. At launch, the space plane was accompanied by staff in biohazard suits, leading to speculation that there were radioactive components on board. The men and women of Team Vandenberg are ready to execute safe landing operations anytime and at a moment's notice,' said Colonel Nina Armagno of...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A secretive unmanned space plane is staying in orbit a little longer. The experimental Air Force craft has been circling Earth for about nine months. The X-37B orbital test vehicle was due to land in California this week, but the Air Force said Tuesday that the mission will be extended. A landing date has not been set...