So what does Boeing's 2007 earnings call mean for your business? Well, for starters, it'll affect your top line.

The big profits in 2007 mean big bonuses for many Boeing workers - engineers, technicians and non-union employees. The Seattle Times calculates that about 47,000 workers (out of about 75,000 statewide) will get payouts averaging between $4,000 and $5,000 each. That's about $200 million in total.

Forget that Congressional plan, this is an effective economic stimulus package. Even if all the members of SPEEA, the engineer's union, put their entire checks into their personal strike fund - their contracts are up this winter, and it never hurts to be prudent - that's still a $100 million infusion of liquidity into local financial institutions, while non-union workers have $100 million to spend on new tech gadgets, home remodeling or road trips to the wine country.

Yesterday's call also gives us a better sense of how long this up-cycle will last - I'm going to say at least through 2013, based on the size of the backlog, and CEO Jim McNerney's confidence that airlines are still able to get financing for the deals they've committed to. That means strong demand for high-skill, high-wage labor in the aerospace sector will continue locally, even if the broader U.S. economy hits the skids.

We still need to keep an eye on Microsoft. The expansion of the Borg Collective into the online realm is the other factor keeping the Puget Sound economy strong, creating more six-figure jobs in the tech sector, and driving demand for office space, which in turn is supporting commercial real estate sales and construction.

MSFT's big profits in the most-recent quarter are a comforting signal, but tech sector sales historically track GDP quite closely. As the national slump continues, we might see Microsoft sales slow as well, which could make it harder to continue the expansion.

Meanwhile, in other Boeing news ?

There was good news/bad news on the long-fought-over tanker front. On Monday, Boeing announced that it had run successful night-time refueling tests with the KC-767s it's building for the Japanese defense force. (Flight International has a pretty cool photo of it posted online.)

But on Tuesday, the company said the Japanese planes won't be delivered until the end of March - two months later than its most-recent plans. The planes originally were supposed to be delivered in late 2005, but have been delayed several times.

A decision is due next month on who gets the contract for the first 179 tankers - Boeing or the EADS/Northrop Grumman team. It's crunch time for Boeing, with the company now saying it will be out of the tanker business for the next 20 years, if it doesn't win this contract. A spokesman told the Master of Sammamish, Leeham's Scott Hamilton, that if Boeing loses next month, it "is very unlikely that we would continue to develop and market new tankers for the international market." Instead, Boeing would start developing a design for the tanker the Air Force will buy the next time around.

Finally, All Nippon Airways yesterday reported its financial results, and said it plans to buy another 60 Boeing jets worth about $5.7 billion. This seemed like really big news, until I read the report from Agence France-Presse, which says that "the orders are not new and have already been announced."

Oh well.