Seattle ? Brushing aside speculation that he would leave The Boeing Co. if he didn’t win the top job, Alan Mulally says he’s not going anywhere.

Asked if he plans to stay as head of the company’s commercial airplane division, Mulally told The Seattle Times, “Absolutely.”

And his thoughts about James McNerney, a Boeing board member and 3M Co. chief executive officer, being named Boeing’s new CEO? “I think it’s fabulous.”

Speaking by cell phone from a family vacation in Montana late Thursday, Mulally – a Lawrence High School and Kansas University graduate – didn’t deny his own ambition to lead the Chicago-based aerospace manufacturer.

“There’s a little disappointment,” Mulally said, “because I think I could have done a good job.”

But he said he wanted to do what’s best for Boeing and believes the company will be stronger with McNerney at the helm.

“A leader like Jim enhances the whole Boeing team,” Mulally said. “I’m really excited about it.”

Boeing named McNerney CEO, board chairman and president on Thursday. He succeeds Harry Stonecipher, who was forced from his post in March after admitting he had an affair with a female Boeing executive.

Mulally said he’s had a long working relationship with McNerney. In the late 1990s, General Electric, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney battled to become sole supplier of the gigantic new engines for the long-range versions of the 777.

Mulally said he remembered giving McNerney, then the chief executive of GE’s aircraft engine division, a call and telling him his team had won.

“I really helped him get this job,” Mulally joked, laughing loudly. “And I’m really proud of that.”

Mulally said he and McNerney became close friends and partners during that 777 project. “We got to know each other really well,” Mulally said. “We had a great experience. We respect each other.”

McNerney inherits a company performing well financially and gaining momentum in its commercial airplane business but still struggling to smooth over lingering tensions with the Pentagon and Capitol Hill.

Despite the recent turmoil, Boeing’s defense sales rose nearly 10 percent annually in 2003 and 2004, its commercial airplane orders are surging, and its stock price has doubled in two years.

The Chicago-based company, which builds most of its commercial planes in the Seattle area, is engaged in a high-stakes battle for supremacy in the passenger jet industry with Airbus, which surpassed Boeing in commercial airplane sales the past two years.