Boeing («www.businessweek.com») on Oct. 10 issued the following press release:

The Boeing Co. today announced a six-month delay in its planned initial deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner due to continued challenges completing assembly of the first airplanes.

Deliveries of the strong-selling Dreamliner are now slated to begin in late November or December, 2008, vs. an original target of May, 2008. First flight is now anticipated around the end of first quarter 2008.

The company said the financial impact of the delay would not be material to earnings and that its earnings guidance for 2007 and 2008 remained unchanged.

“We are disappointed over the schedule changes that we are announcing today,” said Boeing Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer «investing.businessweek.com». “Notwithstanding the challenges that we are experiencing in bringing forward this game-changing product, we remain confident in the design of the 787, and in the fundamental innovation and technologies that underpin it.”

Early last month Boeing announced a delay in the planned first flight of the 787, citing ongoing challenges with out-of-sequence production work, including parts shortages, and remaining software and systems integration activities. The company also acknowledged increasing risk to the delivery schedule, indicating that the margin to accommodate unexpected issues had been eliminated. The newly revised schedule for first flight and first delivery addresses the production challenges and restores margin for the program to deal with issues that may be uncovered in final ground or flight testing. Boeing also said today that flight control software and systems integration activities are not keeping pace with items in the revised schedule for first flight.

“While we have made some progress over the past several weeks completing work on our early production airplanes and improving parts availability across the production system, the pace of that progress has not been sufficient to support our previous plans for first delivery or first flight,” said Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “We deeply regret the impact these delays will have on our customers, and we are committed to working with them to minimize any disruption to their plans.

“The most important commitment we’ve made to our customers is to deliver an airplane that performs to their expectations over the long life of the program. These changes to our schedule will help ensure we do just that,” Carson said.

The company will hold a conference call to discuss the 787 schedule changes today at 12:30 p.m. Central Time, which will be accessible at the company’s Web site.

Boeing will provide its next quarterly financial performance update as planned on Oct. 24.

The lover of a judge who died in a fire that engulfed his garden shed denied today that she changed her story to fit her theory of how he died.

Kerry Sparrow had told police that Andrew Chubb, 58, told her in a phone call on the day of his death that he was on the roof of a crown court building thinking of harming himself. But in a subsequent statement she left this out.

Ms Sparrow, 38, a former legal executive, had a two-year affair with the judge. She told an inquest yesterday that she did not believe his death at his country home in Westvale near Chard, Somerset in 2001, was an accident or suicide.

Mr Chubb, 58, died less than an hour after arguing with his wife, Jennifer, over his request to end their 34-year marriage.

Mrs Chubb has said she was in the house at the time of the accident, and that he had wanted to end his affair with Ms Sparrow, who Mrs Chubb alleges was trying to blackmail him.

Today, at the second inquest, which Ms Sparrow had sought for five years, Ms Sparrow again denied the judge had ever used the words “harm myself”, even though they were contained in a statement she read out yesterday.

“No he didn’t say that. He said, ‘I might as well jump off the roof than face her [his wife],’” she told the inquest in Glastonbury, Somerset. “He said it in a jokey manner. I suppose I was thinking he was going to harm himself.”

Ms Sparrow denied changing her version of events because it did not fit her theory of how he died, but said the phone call had been misinterpreted because it was a joke.

Ms Sparrow today told the hearing that her lover would not have killed himself and was more “distressed than depressed” about his loveless marriage with a wife he “loathed”.

Asked how she felt after learning he was dead, she wept, saying: “I was inconsolable, just devastated.

“I absolutely loved him,” she said, before breaking down in tears.

Mrs Chubb, a community nurse and Red Cross volunteer, inherited her husband’s 1m estate.

She now lives in Australia and has refused to attend the inquest, but in a statement read out today said she was “appalled” when her husband told her he wanted to end their marriage.

“He said I think we should get a divorce and I was astonished. I said ‘You can’t really mean this. This will break up the family’.”

Mrs Chubb wrote that she warned him of financial implications, but he said she would be “well provided for”.

She wrote that he then walked out into the garden, and when she went to confront him about 30 minutes later she found him in the shed repairing a lawnmower.

“I said you can’t just come home and say you’re getting a divorce,” she wrote. Her last words to him were: “I thought you were a good and honourable man, but that doesn’t seem to be the case any more.”

Mrs Chubb told police that around 8.50pm she heard a “tremendous explosion” and saw the shed engulfed in flames.

Mrs Chubb wrote that he had told her about the affair a month beforehand. “He told me he was having a sexual relationship with this woman and he had been trying to end it and that he said she was ’sort of blackmailing me and I’ve given her money. She is threatening to go to the press’,” the statement read.

An initial inquest concluded that the judge’s death was an accident. But Ms Sparrow campaigned for a second hearing, insisting the first was flawed.

October 11, 2007 — Mill Neck, L.I. $2.499 million

This custom-built beachfront home - with three bedrooms, two-plus bathrooms, a formal dining room and a living room with a working fireplace - offers “unobstructed” views of Mill Neck Bay from a bi-level deck. The third-floor master suite features its own sitting area and luxurious bath, while the basement is fully finished with a playroom. And boat lovers rejoice - the house comes with deeded mooring rights.

Agents: Beverly Tayler and Gail Marchbein, Coach Realtors, (631) 757-7272.

Sands Point, L.I. $9.99 million

Built in 1929, this grand Long Island estate, known as Arden Hill, embodies everything you would expect from an era when Long Island estates were built grandly. First, there’s the vast swath of property - some 5.7 acres - covered with manicured lawns, stonework, fountains, sculptured shrubbery, a swimming pool and pool house and a long private drive that leads from a gated entryway up to the main house. About that house: It measures 10,500 square feet, with nine bedrooms, eight full bathrooms and four half-baths, plus “grand-scale, high-ceilinged” entertaining rooms enhanced by “classic architectural elements,” such as elegant moldings, hand-painted wall coverings and nine fireplaces.

Agents: Karen Bruning and Anne Arter, Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty, (516) 883-2900.

Greenwich, Conn. $3.595 million

If you’re going to do Greenwich right, you need a big fancy house on lots of land, preferably near a country club. This recently renovated “grand home in a grand setting” fits the bill - with 4,000 square feet of interior space on a 2-acre lot. It has five bedrooms (the master bedroom has a wood-burning fireplace), 3 baths and lots of new stuff, including a new kitchen and new wiring for sound, inside and out. Plus, there’s beautiful landscaping, large “entertaining terraces” and a heated free-form swimming pool with waterfall spa. Best of all, it’s close to the exclusive Greenwich Country Club.

Agent: Christopher Finlay, Country Living Associates, (203) 869-8100.

Chelsea $4.75 million

Ah, to have such a dilemma: an apartment so lovely it’s hard to leave it, in a part of town chock-a-block with activity. This 2,895-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse condo high above West 17th Street has wonderful interior features - a corner double living room, a chef’s kitchen with top appliances (plus a 50-bottle wine cooler) and a master bath done in limestone. There’s also great outdoor space - a “beautifully landscaped” 400-square-foot terrace (wired for audio and video) with views of the Empire State Building. All this at the nexus of Chelsea and Flatiron, close to galleries, restaurants and Union Square’s greenmarket.

Agents: Loy Carlos and Carrie Chiang, The Corcoran Group, (212) 745-9486 and (212) 836-1088.