Yesterday, I went to the Boeing shareholders meeting.  It was a bit shorter
than I expected.  Last year (when the stock was first down), they made a big
presentation on the 777, and other programs.  This year, it was much more
bare-bones.

In any case, I wanted to ask a question that the board of directors would
hear, and so I got there early, and figured that If I didn't get to the mike,
maybe they would read mine off of a card, and so I wrote it down, and handed it
in.

After the meeting started, Mr. Shrontz said that he would only answer written
questions, in order to be fair to the people in the overflow room that only
had monitors downstairs.  Naturally, I was crushed.

So, when question and answer time came, I was suprised to find my question
being read and answered.  Admittedly near the end of the ones that he took.
Presumably getting there early, and getting the question in early made all
the difference.

So, on to the substance. The question was 

Is Boeing looking at anything BEYOND the high speed Civil Transport, such
as a commercial space launch system, and if not, how will Boeing compete
with the reusable single stage to orbit technology presently being developed
by Mcdonnell Douglass?

Well, he read it without a hitch, and without editing, with impressed me,
then he answered it very quickly treating it as a two part question, last
part first.

This is to the best of my recollection what he said.

As far as single stage to orbit technology, we think that we have a better
answer in a two stage approach, and we are talking to some of our customers 
about that.  As far as commercialization, that is a long ways off.  The High
speed Civil Transport is about as far out as our commercial planning goes at
this point.

So, this tells me that Boeing still considers space to be a non-commercial
arena, and for the most part this is true, however it also tells me that 
they consider there to be enough money in building space launchers for them
to persue work on their own.

Now, I do have a friend on the spacelifter program at boeing.  Actually,
this is a mis-nomer, as there is no spacelifter contract for the work that this
guy is doing, however, he is doing work in preparation of a proposal for space
lifter contracts.  He won't tell me what he is doing, but maybe this is where
the TSTO action is taking place at boeing.  At the very minimum, the chairman
of the board of boeing said that they have an approach in mind, and they are
trying to do something with it.  

Anybody know anything further?
Is this really news?
Does this threaten further work on DC-? ?