Boeing boss wants board approval to offer A380 spoiler The Boeing board is expected to decide this week whether to grant authority to offer the 747 Advanced after company president and chief executive Harry Stonecipher personally backed the plan. Stonecipher is understood to have taken the eleventh-hour decision to seek board approval within 48h of the Airbus A380 roll-out, and made the move following calls from 747 operators for Boeing to make a firm go/no-go commitment to the stretched double-derivative programme ( Flight International, 7-13 December 2004). He also signalled renewed interest in the 747-400X at the company's annual leadership meeting in Palm Springs, California. The decision, if approved, would take the 747 Advanced beyond any previous stretch proposals. The latest plan, which now appears more realistic than the 747-500X/600X effort shelved in the mid-1990s, is also likely to be Boeing's last opportunity to sustain the famous product through the rest of the decade.