Boeing's Boys.

BOEING'S DECISION TO ANOINT three of its executives with CEO titles last spring creates a tacit contest for succession that will be hard to call when head CEO Philip Condit passes the crown.

All three men--Alan Mulally, James Albaugh, and Gerald Daniels--are roughly the same age and have each logged more than 20 years in aerospace. They're all engineers, like Condit, and can fairly claim credit for a share of Boeing's success.

Nonetheless, analysts observing the company favor Alan Mulally, president and CEO of the commercial aircraft division since 1998. A trained private pilot, Mulally is described as an "exuberant, delightful person to work with" whose nature is not incompatible with Condit's predilection for adventure strategy, says Paul Nisbet, a veteran aerospace analyst with JSA Research. Mulally is credited with dramatically improving the profitability of his division after his predecessor lost more than $3 billion in a botched attempt to outproduce Airbus. Mulally's division will provide Boeing with $35 billion of its total $58 billion in revenues this year.

Some believe Mulally has an edge on Albaugh and Daniels because he's perceived as a member of the original Boeing airplane family. Despite the company's diversification into military and aerospace equipment, "Boeing still considers itself a commercial aircraft business," says Matt Collins, a research analyst with Edward Jones, noting that Boeing has traditionally promoted from within. Albaugh of the space and communications division and Daniels of the military equipment division began their careers with Rocketdyne and McDonnell Douglas respectively.

One other candidate clouding the crystal ball is CFO Michael Sears. The former McDonnell Douglas program manager was put in charge of Boeing's military aircraft before becoming CFO in May 2000. "He's well-rounded," says Nisbet. "Perhaps better-rounded than the others."