It's not everyday, or even year for that matter, that an airframer celebrates the first flight of a new aircraft. Boeing's cup has runneth over in the ramp-up to Farnborough with the first flight of not one, but two aircraft-the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and the 100-seat 717. The successful flights were welcome news after the recent dismissal of Boeing Commercial Airplanes president Ron Woodard and the loss of more than 200 souls aboard a Swissair MD-11 just before the show.

Boeing Business Jets president Borge Boeskov was at dinner Friday night in London when he received the good news about the BBJ's first flight directly from Capt. Mike Hewett. The next step is a flutter test scheduled for next week, and required by the Federal Aviation Administration because of the aircraft's new wing/body configuration. The BBJ combines the size of the 737-700 with the strengthened wings and landing gear from the larger 737-800.

The BBJ has 29 confirmed orders since its mid-1996 launch, and Boeing will announce new sales here at Farnborough on Tuesday. Eight aircraft are scheduled for delivery by the end of the year, and Boeskov said 27 are scheduled for production in 1999 and 24 in 2000. Boeing pegs the market for ultra-long-range business jets-which include the BBJ, Airbus A319CJ, Gulfstream V and Bombardier Global Express-at 600 units. It believes it can capture 40% of that market, or 240 planes.

Boeskov said the BBJ has widely outperformed Boeing's initial predictions for the aircraft. Six to eight a year was the maximum it thought it could sell in a year for six to 10 years. As surprising has been the profile of typical BBJ buyer. Boeskov expected fully half of all sales to come from large businesses with global interests; that segment has instead accounted for only 25% of sales, though Boeskov believes the share will eventually climb to 50% as executives beginning seeing the aircraft on the tarmac and the narrowbody's "perception problems" are overcome.

"Quite often there are only a couple people flying in these things (business aircraft)," said Boeskov. "A couple of people stepping of an airliner can cause a perception problem." As surprising is the largest segment of BBJ buyers-"high net worth" individuals such as athletes and Hollywood stars. Boeskov expected that market to account for about 30% of sales, but it's been more like half. The third segment, the head-of-state market for smaller countries like Poland and Romania, has accounted for about 20% of sales-less than the 25% Boeskov expected.

It was the turn of Boeing's 717 to make its first flight two days before that of the BBJ. The 717-200 took off from the Long Beach Municipal Airport slightly less than three months after its rollout. The 106-seat aircraft, designed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95, is built for short-hop service, short-field operations, and the ability to sustain eight to 12 one-hour flights every day of the week.

Concurrent FAA and European Joint Airworthiness Authority certification is planned for third-quarter 1999. AirTran Airlines is the launch customer, and Bavaria International Leasing will take the first delivery in Europe.

With the first flights of the BBJ and 717, Boeing hopes it is now moving beyond its production hold-ups on the 737, 747 and 757 lines. As president, Woodard headed those programs for about five years.

"(Boeing CEO and chairman) Phil (Condit) said a fundamental change was needed to get in front of shareholder value issues," said Boeing vice president of investor relations Larry Bishop. "We were making strides with our production problems but had a little trouble getting our arms around the financial side. We've had some difficult problems and the problems were not getting solved; it was impacting the profit recovery of the company. It was unfortunate you have-by implication-winners and losers, but it was time to make a change."

That change was in the form of Alan Mulally, most recently president of Boeing's Information, Space and Defense Systems Group, who has already made several changes in the senior management team of the commercial group. Mulally was the head engineer on the 777 project when Condit was program manager.

By Barry Rosenberg