The profit for the aerospace and defense giant, excluding one-time items, amounted to 50 cents a share, ahead of the average Wall Street forecast of 47 cents per share.

Revenues increased three percent from the same period last year to 13.088 billion dollars.

"Boeing delivered strong results in the second quarter as we continued to execute well in our core businesses and invest for growth," said Boeing president and chief executive Harry Stonecipher.

A highlight of the April-June period was Boeing's winning of a 3.9 billion-dollar contract to design the US Navy's Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) and the completion of the design concept review on the Future Combat Systems program.

Its two divisions involved in defense contracts showed improving results. The Aircraft and Weapon Systems unit showed revenues up five percent to 2.7 billion dollars with operating margins of 14.4 percent.

Boeing's Network Systems delivered a 22 percent rise in revenues to 2.7 billion dollars on increased activity in Future Combat Systems, Missile Defense and other programs. The operating margins for the unit were 8.3 percent.

The Boeing Commercial Airplanes division struggled, as revenues fell three percent to 5.7 billion dollars even though deliveries increased to 75 airplanes during the second quarter.

The lower results reflect a higher proportion of deliveries of the lower-price 737s. Operating earnings totaled 382 million dollars and operating margins were 6.7 percent.

The airplane division "continued to aggressively manage for profitability while investing for long-term growth," Boeing said, citing its plans for the new 7E7 Dreamliner aircraft.

Looking ahead, Boeing lifted its earnings outlook for 2004 to reflect the additional tax refund and its forecast for 2005 to show higher deliveries of commercial planes and lower-than-anticipated pension and retiree medical expenses.

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