Aviation enthusiasts worldwide know Boeing, the aerospace manufacturer renowned for their military, passenger, and cargo aircraft, among other products. Founded by William E. Boeing, in Seattle, Washington, at a time when aviation was budding, was Pacific Aero Products Company, the firm that would soon after be called the “Boeing Airplane Company.”
Humble beginnings
Mr Boeing, an aviation businessman and pioneer who initially became infatuated with flight while living on the US West Coast, teamed up with Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt to build a new aircraft. Working out of a boathouse on Lake Union, the two men eventually finished their first plane in June 1916, the B & W Seaplane, presumably after their last names. This aircraft would finally be called the “Boeing Model 1,” a float-equipped single-engine biplane.
With a successful first aircraft and in anticipation of a Navy contract for training aircraft, Boeing incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Company the next month. Westervelt was soon after stationed on the East Coast, so Boeing hired foreign engineer Tsu Wong, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, to help continue the business. With Model 1 as a base product, Wong enhanced the design to create the company’s second plane, aptly named Model 2 (or Model C). And the timing couldn’t have been better.
Though Boeing’s first hope of securing a contract with the Model 1 failed, as a result of the US joining World War I in 1917, the Navy was suddenly in need of new trainer aircraft—for which the Model C was a perfect fit. In April 1917, as the US simultaneously became physically involved with the war and requested 50 Model C airplanes, Mr Boeing reincorporated his company as The Boeing Airplane Company.
A trail of success for both Wong and Boeing
Wong eventually returned to his homeland as a pioneer, not only for US aviation concerning his work at Boeing, but also the Chinese industry. He held significant positions with the Hangzhou-based Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company factory, the Chinese Air Force, and the China National Aviation Corporation. And after fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, he helped further influence the aviation industry locally, teaching aeronautical engineering at a large university in Tainan.
As for The Boeing Company, it would see further success during the 20s after the war, both for military aircraft needs and for air mail. The Model 40A and its lightweight engine facilitated double the cargo weight while using the same amount of fuel as the next best plane. Through the 20s and 30s, they also grew corporately, forming an airline company to hold multiple carriers, making what would be called United Air Lines (today’s United Airlines).
In the late 1920s, Boeing was also involved with another collaboration to form the similarly-named United Aircraft and Transportation Company. Primarily made up of Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and Sikorsky Aircraft, the large aviation firm conducted business as such until it broke up in 1934. While Boeing absorbed the original Northrop Aviation Corporation (whose owner would go on to establish another version now part of Northrop Grumman), Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky Aircraft, and others stayed together as United Aircraft Corporation (eventually, United Technologies in 1975), who today is part of Raytheon Technologies.
Source: simpleflying.com