To ensure our continued success, we support our most critical resource: the people of Boeing … At Boeing, we inspire and recognize individual talent, provide job security based on performance, and foster a team spirit and the feeling of personal satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
Frank Shrontz
By 1983, the recession began to ease off, and the 1,000th 737 rolled out from the Renton plant. As the decade passed, Boeing commercial airliners and their military versions became the mainstays of civilian airlines and defense systems. Fuel prices had gone up, and so had the number of airports, passenger flights and environmental restrictions. Jetliners had to be faster, quieter and more energy efficient. To meet these goals, Boeing produced the standard-body 757, the larger 767 and upgraded versions of the 737.
Military projects included the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, the RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter, the F/A-22 fighter, the Avenger air defense system and the Roland surface-to-air missile system. At the same time, Boeing produced the Model 234, the commercial derivative of the CH-47 Chinook military helicopter.
Frank Shrontz became president of The Boeing Company in 1985, chief executive officer in 1986, and board chairman in 1988. Under Frank Shrontz, the company’s military and space businesses were brought together under Boeing Defense & Space Group. The other two company business units were the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group and Boeing Computer Services.
Phil Condit became president of The Boeing Company in 1992, chief executive officer in April 1996, and was elected chairman of the board in 1997. Under Condit’s leadership, several mergers and acquisitions transformed the company into a broad-based, global enterprise.
By the 1990s, Boeing military projects included work on the B-2 stealth bomber and upgrading Boeing-made military aircraft such as the B-52 and the KC-135. Development projects included the remote-controlled DarkStar and the Joint Strike Fighter, a multi-service aircraft. Space group workers built the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster to position satellites into high Earth orbit and constructed the Sea Launch to launch commercial satellites. Others studied the way plants and people survive in orbit as Boeing became the prime contractor for the first International Space Station.
In December 1996, The Boeing Company merged with Rockwell International Corporation’s aerospace and defense units, uniting the two companies. Rockwell’s space systems, aircraft division, Rocketdyne, Autonetics, missile systems, and aircraft modification were renamed Boeing North American, Inc., and operated as a Boeing subsidiary.
On Aug. 1, 1997, Boeing, with its North American component, merged with McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Philip M. Condit remained as chief executive officer and chairman of the new Boeing board of directors. Harry C. Stonecipher, formerly McDonnell Douglas president and chief executive officer, became president and chief operating officer.