Beep. Circle takes the square. Boeing's a private company and is not doing this in conjunction with any government contract. Looks more like corporate R&D.
Boeing is also the #2 NASA/DoD (read government) contractor and does very little R&D without government footing the bill in one way our another. It might be difficult to track the money, but you can bet that Boeing will be handing the bill for this to the taxpayer.
Still Boeing shareholders should be up in arms over this frivolous use of their money. Heck an enterprising class action attourney (read ambulance chaser) might jump on this as evidence of fuduciary recklessness by Boeing management.