Boeing is advancing on several of the most important programs in its history and I offered my resignation as a way to put the distractions and controversies of the past year behind us, and to place the focus on our performance, Condit said in the press release.

Boeings board of directors named Harry Stonecipher to fill Condits role as chief executive officer, and Lewis Platt to serve as non-executive chairman. Both men begin their new post immediately.

Stonecipher is a retired Boeing official who has served in the past as the companys president and chief operating officer. Platt has been a member of the companys board of directors for the past four years.

Boeing has been dogged by controversy throughout the past year surrounding its use of proprietary Lockheed Martin documents during the competition for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle competition, and a deal to lease refueling aircraft to the Pentagon that critics charged would cost more than buying the tankers outright.

The company fired Michael Sears, chief financial officer, and Darleen Druyun, vice president and deputy general manager of missile defense programs last week after an internal investigation found that Sears courted Druyun while she oversaw Boeing-related issues as a senior Air Force acquisition official, and Druyun did not immediately disqualify herself from those matters.