Inventories (Narrative) (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011
Airplane Program 787 [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Inventory, work in process	$ 21,289	$ 16,098
Deferred production costs	15,929	10,753
Supplier advances	1,908	1,770
Unamortized tooling and other non-recurring costs	2,339	1,914
Deferred production, unamortized tooling and other nonrecurring costs to be recovered from firm orders at the balance sheet date	12,810
Deferred production, unamortized tooling and other nonrecurring costs to be recovered from future orders	5,458
Airplane Program 747 [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Deferred production costs	1,292	448
Unamortized tooling and other non-recurring costs	683	852
Deferred production, unamortized tooling and other nonrecurring costs to be recovered from firm orders at the balance sheet date	1,048
Deferred production, unamortized tooling and other nonrecurring costs to be recovered from future orders	927
Capitalized Precontract Costs [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Inventory subject to uncertainty	238	1,728
Early Issue Sales Consideration [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Inventory subject to uncertainty	2,989	2,564
ULA [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Inventory subject to uncertainty	725	1,085
ULA [Member] | Unsold Launches [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Inventory subject to uncertainty	534
A-12 Program [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Inventory subject to uncertainty	237	236
Loss contingency, estimate of possible loss	1,741
Earnings impact due to inventory write-down [Member] | ULA [Member] | Inventory Impact to Earnings [Member]
Inventories [Line Items]
Loss contingency, estimate of possible loss	$ 35