PhillyInc

Mace Security International Inc.

, the Mount Laurel company that makes pepper sprays used to ward off assaults, said an accounting controller at its security division in Florida embezzled at least $300,000 from the company. The theft was discovered during full-year financial reviews, Bloomberg News reported. The unidentified employee was fired in April.

The Boeing Co.

is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its jumbo-jet factory in Everett, Wash., which has been expanded over the years to become the "world's largest building" by volume. How big is it? Its 472 million cubic feet can swallow 2,142 average-size homes, 3.32 billion 16-ounce soda bottles, 75 football fields, or 911 basketball courts. Built to produce the Boeing 747, it has 25,000 employees who now also build the 767, 777 and 787 airliners. Parts of some of those planes have been built in Boeing's relatively diminutive plant in

Ridley Park

.

- Henry J. Holcomb

One of the big-bucks hedge funds

that helped

US Airways Group Inc.

come out of bankruptcy almost two years ago has cashed in on its investment, saying it thinks the current up cycle in the airline business may have run its course.

PAR Investment Partners L.P

. put up $100 million in September 2005. The Boston firm sold 6.5 million US Airways shares in February, and this week sold an additional 6.75 million, at $35.90 a share. This week's transaction alone grossed more than $242 million, providing a nice return on that initial investment. The buyers in both cases were other big investment bankers, the

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

and

UBS Securities L.L.C

., which yesterday downgraded airline stocks.

- Tom Belden