Boeing Co., working to reach a new contract with unionengineers, says some development work on future airliners may bedone at less-expensive sites outside its Seattle jet-manufacturinghub.

While keeping the renewed focus on engineering championed byformer Commercial Airplanes President Jim Albaugh, Boeing can drawon resources from across the breadth of the company, not just thosein the Puget Sound region, Mike Delaney, the chief engineer, saidyesterday.

“Seattle is a love-hate relationship for me,” he said. “I lovepumping all the money into my team, but now we're in the same placeas southern California and the Washington, D.C., area in terms ofcost to do engineering. Those are the three most expensive placesin the country to do engineering.”