Interesting call, eh? I've got to go into a meeting shortly, but here are a few quick thoughts:

$9.6 billion in free cash flow - Wow. Boeing has the cash to do whatever it needs to do with the 787, 747-8, 777 and 737 follow-ons. That's got to be a nice feeling.

The credit markets - I thought this was perhaps the most-interesting part of the call. CEO Jim McNerney says that most jets are being financed by "sovereign credits, Ex-Im (the U.S. Export-Import Bank), the leasing companies themselves." They are NOT being funded by the crippled U.S. credit market.

However, in those cases where the U.S. financial sector is involved, "some paper's getting sold that wasn't getting sold five or six months ago," he says, although "some of the frothier deals are not getting done."

And a telling detail: Boeing is scaling back the portfolio of planes it's financing itself through Boeing Capital Corp. - even with record orders. Clearly, buyers are able to get financing for new jets without resorting to lenders of last resort (which is what I'd consider BCC to be).

Bottom line: Credit is not an issue. Airline buyers are getting the financing they need to buy planes. That bodes well as it tries to keep the backlog in line.

787 supply chain - Another interesting point. There have been rumors flying around the Everett factory (you may have read them on another blog) that Boeing was going to buy out some suppliers that were failing to deliver on the 787. McNerney pretty much scotched that, or the notion that Boeing would take major equity positions in those suppliers in order to gain more control over their processes.

"The form of financial support that we might contemplate in extreme circumstances would be jointly carrying inventory together . . . rather than investing in their own facilities," he said.

Like I've said before - Boeing has no other choice but to make this supply chain work, because there's no where else to turn. "We have absolutely no plans to drop any suppliers," McNerney said. "When we qualified our partners early on, we did it with our eyes wide open."

2008 orders -- Clearly Boeing expects sales to fall this year, but Bell's "book-to-build ratio greater than one" means the company expects to sell at least 500 planes this year (well, 470) - possibly more if the U.S. majors move sooner rather than later. Bell was surprisingly bullish on that point.

"With the higher oil prices and their needs, they'll have to get engaged soon," he said. "That's kind of where we expect the order traffic to come from, this year and going forward. There's a lot of aging aircraft in the U.S. that can't be operated economically and competitively."

Alright, I gotta run.