G.E.'s investment, amounting to 13 percent of the aerospace conglomerate, dates to 1993, when G.E. sold its aerospace subsidiary.

Ford Motor selected a joint venture of Loral and Shearon Lehman Hutton to acquire its aerospace subsidiary.

Then in October, DaimlerChrysler announced that it was merging its aerospace subsidiary with Aerospatiale Matra of France, which also owns 37.9 percent of Airbus.

The Ford Motor Company has received three bids for its aerospace subsidiary and may accept one within a week, a company spokesman, Thomas Rhoades, said.

His father retired as a foreman in the aerospace subsidiary of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio.

In 2007 GE Aviation, a division of General Electric, acquired Smith's aerospace subsidiary, Smiths Aerospace, for US$4.8 billion.

But Daimler's aerospace subsidiaries, now called Deutsche Aerospace (DASA), want to take a 50% stake in another European aircraft-making consortium.

The aerospace subsidiary of Daimler-Benz A.G. of Germany had made significant gains in cost reduction and would continue to do so this year, aided by personnel cuts, officials said.

Analysts said Ford - whose cash reserves stood at $4.2 billion in September, down from about $10 billion two years ago - could get $700 million to $1 billion for the aerospace subsidiary.

Under the plan, DaimlerChrysler would turn over the entire aerospace subsidiary except for a division that makes aircraft engines.