Just as Boeing was slowly recovering from the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 passengers and crew, a Max door-plug blowout over Portland, Ore. in January of 2024 trained the spotlight on its manufacturing practices, which had increasingly put profits over quality. Federal regulators cracked down, freezing Max production at a third below its prior peak. Boeing’s defense and space division, meanwhile, was booking multi-billion losses on federal contracts spouting big cost overruns. 

The laundry list of problems got longer: The challenge of integrating stricken Spirit AeroSystems, the fuselage supplier Boeing had sold two decades and just agreed to re-acquire, greatly upped its risk profile going forward. To make matters worse, Boeing was facing a potentially crippling strike from its powerful union of 33,000 machinists in the Puget Sound area, whose leaders claimed that since management couldn’t do it, the rank-in-file needed to “save Boeing from itself.”

The job looked so tough that Boeing struggled to find a taker. Among the marquee names the airplane colossus reportedly courted, sans sale, were CEOs Larry Culp of GE Aerospace, Dave Gitlin of Carrier Global, and its own chairman, Steve Mollenkopf, the former Qualcomm chief.

Ortberg was a total dark horse. He’d served successfully as CEO of aerospace and defense manufacturer Rockwell Collins for five years. United Technologies acquired Rockwell in 2018, and then sold to RTX less than two years later. Soon thereafter, Ortberg retired. By the time he took the Boeing job, Ortberg hadn’t filled an operating role for over four years. 

Ortberg’s demeanor is so understated, and he keeps such a low public profile, that the scale of his achievement since then hasn’t gotten the kudos it deserves—but that’s beginning to change. Put simply, Boeing’s en route to one of the most dramatic, and quickest, comebacks on record for a formerly ailing corporate giant. “Boeing found its change-agent in Ortberg,” says Scott Mikus, an analyst at Melius Research. “Thanks to Ortberg, the dream of a great industrial company is still alive.” 

A seasoned engineer

Ortberg brings the right stuff as a seasoned engineer who features a history of promoting smooth labor relations. He’s reinstated “an engineering-first” culture at Boeing, a sharp departure from the falling interest and lack of investment in innovation, and focus on share buybacks, that reigned in the pre-Max-crash period from 2014 to 2018. Ortberg’s following a nothing-flashy, back-to-basics, step-by-step approach that targets big improvements in quality, reliability and on-time delivery. He’s also going for win-win agreements with suppliers, in contrast to Boeing’s former penchant for antagonizing partners by severely gouging them on pricing.

As a young engineer, Richard Safran––an analyst at Seaport Securities––saw Ortberg in action at Rockwell Collins. “That’s why unlike most people, I wasn’t surprised by his coup at Boeing,” says Safran. “He’s a Midwesterner who takes the ‘no decision before its time’ approach. He’s methodical about checking all the boxes one after another. He’s such a good engineer that he knows just enough about everyone’s job to be dangerous. And he knows how to make money.”

A person who’s seen regimes come and go, and worked alongside Ortberg at Boeing, marvels at the shift in culture. “He’s set a new tone in the place,” says this observer. “He measures people not just on what they do, but how they do it. You need to reach out and get feedback from colleagues. His approach calls for tying pay and promotions to how people treat and respect one another, in addition assessing their work. Are there still people in senior places who don’t treat people well? Yes, but it’s a good start.” 

This individual also stresses that Ortberg’s own people skills set the template: “He’s a good listener with high EQ. His theme is getting Boeing back to what it needs to be.”  Ortberg’s also renowned for high expectations that colleagues are always well prepared when he quizzes them about their businesses. 

What’s particularly remarkable about Ortberg’s turnaround is that it faced an almost instant hurdle: Within a month of his arrival, the mechanics strike sent production of its best-selling 737 MAX fleet from the already FAA-reduced cadence to virtually zero. Ortberg took a typically conservative stance, raising over $24.3 billion in new capital to cover the coming losses and bolster Boeing’s balance sheet. 

He resolved the stoppage in a relatively fast 53 days, and a string of victories quickly followed. In March of last year, Boeing won the Air Force’s Sixth Generation fighter program in a stunning upset over the competitor that previously cornered the market, Lockheed Martin. The contract opens the way for a new era of profitability in the defense and space sector: After booking an operating loss of over $5.4 billion in 2024, the legacy of grossly underbidding on military aircraft initiatives, the division turned slightly profitable last year, and in Q1 of 2026, earned $233 million for a resurgent operating margin of 3.1%.

In commercial aircraft, Boeing’s largest franchise by far, the campaign to revamp manufacturing safety measures began in the post-crash period, under the close supervision of the FAA. But Ortberg’s relentlessly systematic approach hastened the progress, and the results are now showing in a big way. 

He’s managed to get the FAA cap on the Max, Boeing’s workhorse aircraft, lifted from 38 to 42 a month, and expects to exit 2026 sending 52 off the assembly line, around the peak number eight years ago. Due largely to the jump in Max output and deliveries, Ortberg predicts that Boeing’s heading to $10 billion in free cash flow. Though he doesn’t provide a date, both Mikus and Safran believe Boeing will hit that milestone in the 2028 timeframe. And on the Q1earnings call, CFO Jesus Malave stated that Boeing’s aiming higher. “I think the potential for our cash flow supports being above $10 billion,” said Malave. Getting beyond that figure would take Boeing back to near its top numbers ever in 2017 and 2018—but back then profits roared largely via curbs in R&D and workforce as a share of sales, strategies that robbed from the future.

Ortberg wins high praise from airline customers. “Boeing’s doing a pretty miraculous job of turning around,” United Airline CFO Michael Leskinen said recently. “Our confidence that our Max aircraft will be delivered on time has never been greater during my [over eight year] tenure at United.” 

Still, Captain Kelly faces big challenges in getting Boeing’s wings full level for maximum speed of ascent. Boeing still suffers from ongoing supply chain, quality and certification issues, though they’ve declined. For example, wiring problems on the Max have pushed deliveries scheduled for Q1 into Q2, and a shortage of business class seats is delaying output on its widebody stalwart, the 787. 

Up ahead: Labor challenges, and a new plane

A crucial test looms in October: Boeing’s contract with its 16,000 engineers, which predates Ortberg, is expiring. It’s essential that Ortberg, the engineer’s engineer, secure an agreement that satisfies all parties, and avoids an extremely lengthy strike, as he did with the machinists. “That would send a message that Boeing’s cultural transformation is real,” says Mikus.

Indeed, Boeing will need the world’s best engineering talent to develop an all-new plane that will match if not beat Airbus in narrow-bodies where the Max and A220s and A320s play, and that comprise the biggest airplane class. Since 2010, its archrival has captured around 60% of that market, chiefly due to the superior range of its A320neo and A320XLR families. Ortberg has stated that Boeing must wait until the technology’s right before committing to the crucial new design that will largely chart its future. A major part of that process will involve choosing a highly advanced engine from GE, RTX, or Rolls Royce that delivers both big fuel savings of around 20% and greater longevity that will curb the high repair costs on the current versions. 

The big question: Will Ortberg, whose caution has so far worked well, move fast enough? “By concentrating on getting cash flow up, are they crowding out next-gen aircraft development?” queries one industry veteran. By contrast, Airbus has been highly aggressive in collaborating alongside GE Aerospace in testing the so-called RISE engine—which, in part by removing the nacelles that enclose the fan blades, fashioning the blades from super-strong, lightweight carbon fiber and making them longer, could achieve new frontiers in energy efficiency. 

But Boeing also harbors an ace: the new chief of commercial aircraft development Brian Yutko. The appointment of Yutko, an MIT PhD in aeronautics who at around age 40 stands among the world’s top experts in revolutionary airplane design, signals that Boeing will be carefully weighing all of the most-avant garde options on the market, and decreases the risk the rebounding giant will move too late.

 By Wall Street’s best estimates, the earliest Boeing could commit to a new greenfield plane is 2029 or 2030, with production coming around 2037. Keep in mind that Ortberg just turned 66. “He took the job at an age when most top executives at retiring,” says the aerospace insider. Indeed, Ortberg could stay at the controls for several more years, and even make the call on the all-new plane. 

But for the Boeing board, job one is setting a succession plan, and it will have a jumbo-sized presence to replace. Fortunately, the directors will hold a far stronger hand than when it recruited Ortberg. Then, things were so bleak that even Boeing’s immense size and vaunted legend wasn’t enough to lure the top brand, practicing CEOs. This time, the job’s going to be a lot more attractive. Credit the unlikely pick who fit the times: Kelly Ortberg.

This story ran in the June/July 2026 issue of Fortune as part of a feature called “Innovation Giants on the Rebound.” For more Fortune 500 innovation stories, click here.