SDB targets operational testing

In less than four years, Boeing's Small Diameter Bomb has finished development testing and is now set for operational testing. A pace like that, said Boeing SDB Program Manager Dan Jaspering, is "unheard of."

The development test program included 37 test flights that put the SDB through numerous scenarios against various targets, including tanks, rocket launchers and an aircraft hidden in a reinforced bunker. The last test was a four-bomb drop Aug. 25. Through it all, the SDB missed its target aim point by a miniscule average of about 4 feet. "We're very proud of that," Jaspering said. "In a wartime situation, that's putting it in the right room, not just hitting a building."

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Pitching in

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Boeing employees—past and present—showed their tremendous generosity by supporting Gulf Coast residents whose lives were literally torn apart when Katrina came ashore.

The outpouring of support has come from Boeing locations coast to coast, from Washington state to Washington, D.C.; from Mesa, Ariz., to Huntsville, Ala.; and from Southern California to Titusville, Fla., demonstrating just how remarkable Boeing people are.

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Jack Real; helped run Apache program

Jack G. Real, retired Hughes Helicopters Inc. and McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. president, died Sept. 6 in Southern California at age 90. Real, an aviation engineer, business leader and advisor to Howard R. Hughes, helped bring the AH-64 Apache helicopter from flight test to production.

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We need to know

Watch this season's third episode of NBC's "The West Wing" and you might see someone you know—or at least a familiar airplane.

That's because about 50 employees helped film part of the show on Sept. 17 at the Boeing C-17 production facility in Long Beach, Calif. Warner Bros selected the facility and hired the employees to be extras in a scene that features "West Wing" star Jimmy Smits.

Smits' character, Congressman Matt Santos, is running for President of the United States in the series. In this particular scene, Santos visits Boeing to tour a C-17 and deliver his message to the media. He tells reporters: "The Air Force urgently needs more C-17s, and the American workers are ready, willing and able to do the job."

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