EVERETT – Boeing appears well positioned to maintain its lead over Airbus in total orders. As of Sept. 13, Boeing has received 377 firm orders for its 787 Dreamliner, with another 43 commitments from 32 customers. There are also proposals out to an additional 30 customers for more than 500 Dreamliners. New customers will have to wait at least five years to get their planes. Boeing Dreamliner manufacturing is booked through 2010 and 2011 is filling fast, says Boeing spokesman Nicolaas Groeneveld-Meijer.

Sales for Boeing’s Next Generation 737s are also brisk. Jakarta-based Lion Air has ordered 30 737- 900ERs and has exercised purchase rights for 30 additional 737-900ERs. SpiceJet of New Delhi has ordered five 737-800s and 737-900s to its fold, a deal valued at more than $700 million at list prices. Justplanes.com estimates Boeing has pulled in 474 orders this year, compared with Airbus’s 398.

This fall will also mark the debut of Scott Carson as the new president of the commercial airplanes unit. He replaces Alan Mulally, who left the company to become the CEO of the Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich. Carson, who had been vice president of sales for the Seattle-based division, has been with the company for 34 years. On the military side, Boeing has just unveiled its EA-18G Growler, which will be used by the U.S. Navy. The armed-to-the-teeth jet can operate remotely from either the deck of an aircraft carrier or land-based fields. The prototype, which is a derivative of the F/A-18F Super Hornet (flyaway price of $53.8 million), took its maiden voyage August 15 at Lambert St. Louis International Airport. Boeing’s contract to make two Growlers for the Navy is worth $1 billion. The Navy has asked for 90 Growlers. The jets are expected to join the Navy’s fleet in 2009. “We’re providing the warfighters of today something they can’t even imagine,” says U.S. Navy’s Capt. Donald “BD” Gaddis. “We’re going to deliver a product that is truly going to transform the way we fight.”