Wichita ? A British aerospace firm has confirmed it is one of four companies still involved in talks to purchase the Boeing Co.’s commercial airplane plants in Kansas and Oklahoma.

GKN bought Boeing’s Hazelwood, Mo., facility near St. Louis in 2001. It has long been considered a leading contender to buy Boeing’s commercial operations in Wichita and its plants in Tulsa and McAlester, Okla.

“I’m not sure we have made a bid as such, but we are looking at it,” GKN spokesman Peter Baillie said Thursday. “We, back in May, did look at it and told Boeing that on the basis of the deal on the table we wouldn’t be going forward with the proposal. We effectively walked away. Things moved on and we were invited to reinvite ourselves into the process.”

Baillie said GKN was one of four companies cited by Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher when he was in London recently as being involved in the process. Baillie said he did not know the identities of the other three.

“We did look at ways it could make sense. We are only interested in a deal that makes sense for our business and shareholders,” Baillie said. “That is where we are now.”

One reason GKN would be interested in Boeing’s Wichita facility is that the plant will get much of the composite materials work on Boeing’s new 7E7 Dreamliner plane, analysts say. GKN is a world leader in the production of composite assemblies for airframes and engines.

“GKN has both the precedent and the strategy,” said aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group.

In addition to GKN, union officials believe the other interested buyers might include Dallas-based Vought Aircraft Industries or its parent, The Carlyle Group, an investment firm based in Washington, D.C.

Another name that has surfaced is the Canadian investment group Onex Corp., said Bill Dugovich, spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

But SPEEA officials say they have gotten no confirmation from Boeing on any of those names. The union narrowed its list of potential buyers based on reports from its own members. Representatives of potential buyers had been touring the Wichita facilities.

In this aviation-dependent city, speculation on the sale is almost palpable because Boeing is its largest private employer.

The sale covers Boeing plants that employ about 8,400 workers at the three locations, 7,100 of them in Wichita. Boeing’s defense business in Wichita, and its 3,400 workers, are not part of the sale.