An advanced laser mounted on a C-130H aircraft fired on and hit a moving vehicle last month at New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range, the Boeing Co. disclosed today.

The chemically powered laser fired a beam of concentrated light on the vehicle, burning a hole in its fender.

Boeing is developing the Advanced Tactical Laser for the Air Force to knock out high priority targets without causing major collateral damage.

The company is also using a high-powered laser weapon to knock down enemy missiles in a system still under development.

The idea of such high-powered beam weapons emerged first in the '30s in such science fiction tales such as "Buck Rogers."

Practical laser weaponry has been difficult to produce because of its need for huge amounts of power generated for a portable weapon. Present day developmental laser weapons use a chemical reaction to create such a large burst of power.

Tentative plans released today in permit filings in South Carolina show Boeing wants to clear some 80 acres of forest land to build a 720,000-square-foot assembly plant in Charleston.

The plant presumably would be the second assembly site for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

Boeing says it is filing for the permits to get a head start on plant construction if it decides on Charleston for the second assembly line for the Dreamliner.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire Monday released a new report enumerating reasons why that second assembly line should be built in Everett or Moses Lake.

Boeing's existing assembly line is in Everett for the 767.

Charleston's major advantage would be it status as a largely non-union state. That means lower wages and benefits than in Everett and no possibility of strikes.

Washington residents are smarter, its aerospace taxes are lower, its unemployment fund more stable, its aircraft industry infrastructure is more extensive, its workforce more experienced and its quality of life superior.

So why would Boeing consider opening a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in South Carolina or any other state?

That's the question Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire asks in a new report aimed at persuading Boeing to open that second Dreamliner assembly line here.

Gregoire presented that report recently to Jim Albaugh, the new head of the company's Commercial Airplanes Group. She released it to the public today.

Washington provides Boeing with the best location for the second line. Washington is the highest quality location Boeing could possibly identify for additional 787 production," said Gregoire in an introduction to the new report.

While the report enumerates Washington's supposed advantages, it mentions no new incentives to turn Boeing's head.

Boeing said it appreciated the compilation of the state's advantages, the company believes unemployment and workers' compensation taxes are too high.

"While Washington state has made progress, there is still work to do to deal with the high costs of doing business," Boeing spokesman Bernard Choi told the Associated Press.

Washington Sen. Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, concurred that more needs to be done.

“While this report is beautiful and glossy and filled with rankings, is there really any substance here that Boeing hasn’t already considered? I want the company to stay in Washington as much as everyone else, but it’s time to stop resting on rankings and look at where we really are on the ground," he said in a news release.

Hewitt said the Legislature needs to consider Workers Compensation reform to cut workers compensation taxes that are due to rise this year.

Boeing received huge tax breaks when it searched for the site for the first 787 assembly line six years ago. Washington produced a $3 billion package of tax cuts and infrastructure and education enhancements to lure the assembly line to Everett.

But Boeing has already dropped strong hints that the second assembly line could be located elsewhere than Everett.

The company has applied for building permits in Charleston, S.C., where it recently purchased a plant from Vought Aerospace Industries that builds major sections of the 787 fuselage. The company says those building permit applications aren't indicative of the company making up its mind. It just wants to be ready to build a new plant if the decision favors South Carolina.

And Boeing executives have said that unless they get some assurance of labor peace here, they may just open that other assembly line in another state. Boeing suffered a two-month Machinists Union strike that shut down production of all of its commercial airplane lines here.

The report notes that the subject of labor peace is the subject of negotiations between Boeing and its unions.

Those unions have been talking with Boeing about how to ensure better relations.

But beyond labor issues, Gregoire's report enumerates several reasons why Washington outshines its rival states, though it leaves the question of labor costs and labor peace as a brief item in the report.

The report contends:

* Washington has a superior business climate.
In ratings by half-a-dozen independent sources, the Evergreen State earns higher marks consistently than rival states.
The Kauffman New Economy Index, which amalgamates 29 different indicators, Washington is ranked second to South Carolina's 34th.

Forbes Magazine also rates Washington fourth in business climate compared with 25th for South Carolina fifth for North Carolina and eighth for Texas.

* Washington has lower taxes for an aircraft assembly plant than any of the other states under consideration.
Total yearly taxes a new plant would be $11 million in Moses Lake, an alternative site for the plant, $11.3 million in Everett and $11.8 million in Charleston.

Washington real and personal property taxes are lower in Everett than in potential plant locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Kansas, the report claims.

Washington's sales taxes on construction are higher than those in competing states, but the state charges no sales taxes on machinery and equipment or components, the report notes.

* The state's unemployment insurance fund is healthy while rival states' funds are insolvent.

Washington unemployment insurance rates may be higher than other states, the result is the most financially healthy fund among the competing states. Both North and South Carolina funds are insolvent and borrowing money from the federal government. Texas' fund could be broke in two to three months. Rival states' unemployment rates are likely to rise to meet their obligations.

* Washington has the world's largest cluster of aerospace companies and workers. Other states' resources are small compared with Washington's.

n Boeing can take advantage of the experience Everett workers and suppliers have gained already putting the first 787s together. No other state's workforce has that experience.

* The state has improved its highway and mass transit infrastructure greatly since the 2003 competition, and more improvements are being built.

* Washington students consistently outperform students in other states on college readiness evaluation tests.
Average ACT scores for Washington are 22.8 compared with South Carolina's 19.8. Scholastic Aptitude Tests give Washington students a similar edge. Washington students average 531 scores on SAT math tests versus 496 in South Carolina and 506 in Texas.

* The state's quality of life rankings surpass South Carolina's. In the 2008 CNBC Top States for Business ranking, Washington rateds ninth place. South Carolina was 39th. The 2009 Most Livable States Award rated Washington 18th versus South Carolina's 49th.

Could Boeing fly its two newest airliners for the first time on the same day later this fall?

Boeing says that it's now technically possible that its new 747-8 and its 787 Dreamliner could take to the air for the first time within a short time of each other.

Boeing has created separate flight-testing operations for each plane, so the first flight of one of the aircraft won't be borrowing equipment or personnel from the other's flight test operation.

The 787's first flight is now more than two years behind schedule because of technical, production and labor problems. The 747-8's first flight is about six months behind in part because Boeing diverted some of its engineering resources to work on the 787.

Both planes are now set to take their first flights in late November or early November Boeing workers are now reinforcing the wing-body joints on the 787 after static testing discovered a weakness in that area.

The 747-8 is the latest version of the venerable 747. It features a new wing, new generation engines, an updated cockpit and a fuselage stretch. The 787 is a new aircraft made mostly of composites instead of metal. It promises 20 percent fuel savings over current aircraft its size.

The schedule for replacement for the big aerospace manufacturers' bread-and-butter aircraft, the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737, keeps slipping.

The latest schedule pushback came today at an Airbus' aviation forecast conference when Airbus' chief salesman John Leahy told attendees the replacement for the twin-engine A320 won't debut until 2024.

Both Boeing and Airbus two years ago said they expected replacements for their best-selling aircraft might emerge as soon as 2015, but both manufacturers have slipped that date.

The 2024 date from Airbus is the latest date yet mentioned by either plane-maker.

Both companies have openly talked about providing interim updates of their aircraft with new engines, electronics and interiors as well as aerodynamic tweaks.

Creating a new aircraft from scratch could cost $12 billion to $15 billion, a factor that helps push the projects back particularly during a bad world economy.

First Russell, now Blue Box Group. Or first The Northern Pacific, then Weyerhaeuser, then Russell, now Blue Box Group.

The Tacoma-based and -born Web hosting and specialty application firm has announced that it has left Tacoma in favor of Seattle.

All 11 staff members will relocate by the end of the year, according to CEO and owner Jesse Proudman, who grew up in Tacoma and attended the University of Puget Sound.

“It was a staffing decision. We’ve grown 100 percent a year for last three years, and we’ve had a very difficult time finding and attracting a high level of people to a Tacoma office,” Proudman said earlier today. “A Seattle office would have been much more attractive.”

The firm will move its office to a space in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.

“At the end of the day, I really love Tacoma as a town,” Proudman said. “I just would hope that there would be some shifts to draw some technology talent to Tacoma.”

Founded in 2003, “Blue Box Group provides managed Web hosting solutions. They approach Web hosting, virtual and dedicated servers as a partnership with their customers. Blue Box Group knows technology and scalable ruby on rails deployments,” according to a press release.

One sign that the auto industry is still alive and perhaps recovering came this week at Tacoma's Titus-Will Ford.

Ford was there with its rolling road show for its new Taurus, its 21st century effort to revive the nameplate that was once the nation's most popular.

The car that bears the Taurus name now bears little resemblance the rental car staple that the revolutionary Taurus had become in its waning days.

The new Taurus hopes to compete with and beat such domestic and foreign marque best-sellers as Chryler's 300, Toyota's Avalon, Audi's A6 and Lexus' GS 350.

Brad Hughes, Ford's Global Product Design controller, was among the team at Titus-Will for the local roll-out celebration.

Hughes, who like his company has weathered the storms that struck the auto industry in the last year, said he thinks cars like the new Taurus represent a reinvigorated Ford.

Ford was the only one of the Big Three domestic automakers that didn't enter bankruptcy.

The car itself is as much an electronics showpiece as an automotive one. It features a special key parents can give to their driving age kids that limits the car's top speed and audio volume.

The special key triggers a persistent seat belt reminder that chimes for six seconds at a time for five minutes. The key tells the car to alert the teen driver 75 miles before the gas is exhausted and prohibits disablement of the traction control.

Other electronic features include alerts for cross traffic when you're backing from a parking space, a blind spot alert, an adaptive cruise control and collision warning system.

The car itself, a muscular-looking design, in its top-of-the-line iteration, the SHO, can reach 60 mph in five seconds. Inside at speed, it's as silent as a refrigerator and as comfortable as the parlor at a men's club.

Not coincidentally, Ford announced today that Titus-Will had won the company's President's Award, an honor awarded to less than 10 percent of the 4,000 Ford dealers nationwide for superior service and customer relations.

While Boeing fits reinforcements into the wings of its still-unflown 787 Dreamliner, the production crew at the other end of the company's Everett plant is moving forward quickly with Boeing's other new airliner.

Boeing said today four General Electric engines have now been installed on the wings of the 747-8 Freighter in preparation for the plane's first flight later this year.

The GEnx-2B engines are variations of the engines that will power the 787.

The 787 has yet to fly more than two years after its debut flight was originally scheduled.

The Dreamliner's first flight has endured five postponements, the latest was this summer after Boeing discovered the wing-body joint on the revolutionary plane didn't meet strength requirements. Modifications to that area are in process with a new first flight scheduled for late this year.

If the Dreamliner continues to dawdle through its development, and the 747-8 continues to move smoothly, that could mean the new 747 could take to the air before its smaller brother.

The 747-8 is the latest variant of the 747 which debuted in the late '60s. The new version includes new wings and engines, a fuselage stretch, a new cabin and new electronics. Boeing has orders for 78 of the cargo versions of the plane.

A fantasy weapon that until now has existed only in comic books and sci-fi movies is moving toward reality.

Boeing Co. announced today it has successfully tested what it calls the "Advanced Tactical Laser"

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Comcast plans to begin notifying its Washington customers this week that they will see price increases in their October cable television bills averaging 2.7 percent.

Digital Starter, a package of channels taken by a majority of Comcast customers, will increase by $1.70 a month from $55.75 to $57.45.

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Sea-Tac Airport will use a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to replace 200 gas and diesel vehicles used at the airport with electric vehicles, the airport said this week.

The grant will also help the airport add electric charging stations on the airport's ground level for those new vehicles.

The replacement program is estimated to eliminate some 4,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution annually at the airport.

The vehicles being replaced include gasoline baggage tractor and loading equipment that are among the thirstiest of the airport's 650 ground vehicles.

Boeing's woes with the development of the fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner came home to roost today with an anticipated $2.5 billion charge against third-quarter earnings.

The news of the huge charge-off came as Boeing announced that the first 787, fresh from modifications of its wing-to-body joint, will fly late this year.

If the 787 flies in December for the first time, its initial flight will be nearly two and a half years behind its original schedule.

The company said it will be taking the charge against earnings of $2.21 a share in the third quarter because the first three test aircraft have no market value because of all of the retrofits and unique changes made to them.

The fourth through sixth test aircraft, subject to less rework than the first three, will likely be sold in the executive aircraft market, said Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group President Scott Carson in an early morning conference call.

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