Rising through the ranks

Brian Laughlin and Abraham Lincoln have something in common.

Laughlin, an e-business strategist and pioneer in Web design and development at Boeing in Wichita, Kan., doesn't claim to share the same childhood education or hardships of the legendary Lincoln, who once wrote he attended "some schools so called, but for less than a year altogether."

But what Laughlin does share is Lincoln's zest for learning. With little education, Lincoln became a lawyer by borrowing books to study by candlelight late at night.

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Pushing the Machine to the Limit

It's 8 a.m. on a Monday and former astronaut Bruce Melnick is revved.

He's back from a three-day fantasy trip as a driver at the Justin Bell Racing School in West Palm Beach, Fla., and can't wait to talk about it.

"You hit this turning point here at 135 mph," said Melnick, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems vice president at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. He's standing at his office marker board, gesturing like an excited student. "It's a bit like turning left into your driveway and turning right out of it before you hit the garage. I'm not exaggerating, it's that short."

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