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William E. Boeing 1891-1956 Following text from www.nationalaviation.org It is said that Boeing, a wealthy Seattle timber man and aviation enthusiast who learned to fly from Glenn L. Martin in 1915, purchased one of the first Martin seaplanes. When an accident damaged the plane, Boeing decided to repair it himself. He soon was convinced a whole new plane could be made. He received enthusiastic encouragement from a young construction engineer at the nearby Bremerton Navy Yard and Pacific Aero Products Co. was born. 1916, Established the Pacific Airplane Company, which became the Boeing Airplane Company a year later and built its first two planes, both float biplanes. 1926 established the Boeing Air Transport service for mail and passenger service. Helped create the United Aircraft and Transport Company (known as “United” today) and served as chairman. Awarded the Daniel Guggenheim Award in 1934. 1881-1956 America’s gilded age was a time of prosperity or poverty, of great industrial growth and sweatshops. Robber Baron and captains of Industry, wealthy families such as the Vanderbilt’s and Carnegie’s ruled America while the poor looked to Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall for support as they struggled to stay afloat. France’s Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau once remarked that America had gone from barbarism to decadence without ever achieving any civilization in between. The emergence of modern America created a state of great growth and advancement, and any man who dreamed could make a fortune. One man, William Boeing achieved success simply by possessing a passion of adventure, surrounding himself with knowledgeable friends, and taking a chance when the timing was right. William Boeing was born October 1, 1881 in Detroit Michigan. His father, Wilhelm Boeing migrated to America dreaming of wealth and freedom. The elder Boeing found his fortune as a timber baron, purchasing an immense region of the Mesabi Range rich in iron and pine. He was a strict father and only wanted the best for his son providing William with the finest education available in both America and Switzerland. Unfortunately, the elder Boeing died when William was only 8 years old, but not before he served as a catalyst for his son’s future successes. Boeing entered Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School with the class of 1904, but he would leave school with only a year left, coincidently the same year the Wright brothers made history, and moved to Gray’s Harbor, Washington. Searching for adventure, wealth and himself, much as his father had done, Boeing successfully established his own timber business making a fortune trading forest land. After only seven years, Boeing was ready for a new adventure and moved to Seattle. Boeing, the man of fortune, surrounded himself with other men of wealth and prosperity who also maintained a thirst for adventure. He once remarked, “My firm conviction from the star has been that science and hard work can lick what appear to be insurmountable difficulties. I’ve tired to make the men around me feel, as I do, that we are embarked as pioneers upon a new science and industry in which our problems are so new and unusual that it behooves no one to dismiss any novel idea with the statement that it can’t be done.” Conrad Westervalt, an Annapolis engineering graduate and strong proponent of the naval aviation, met and befriended Boeing through elite social clubs. Both bachelors at the time, they enjoyed sailing and boating in the Puget Sound. The pair’s conversation most often turned to technological advancements of not only traditional boats, but also boats with wings. Boeing was dissatisfied with the boats on the market, so what does any wealthy young man do? He bought the Heath shipyard and started a company building boats of his own design and specifications. It would not be long though until Boeing taken by the newest invention – the airplane. While attending the first American Air Meet in Los Angeles, Boeing asked nearly every aviator for a ride, but no one said yes except Louis Paulhan. For three days Boeing waited, but on the 4th day he discovered Paulhan had already left the meet. Possibly, one of the biggest missed opportunities in Paulhan's life was the ride he never gave Boeing. After the meet, Paulhan represented himself in a lawsuit the Wright Brothers filed against him alleging he infringed on their aileron patent. Paulhan would eventually lose and he returned to France when he attempted to build airplanes without ailerons. Finally, on July 4, 1914, Boeing’s wait was over when friend offered him a ride in his Curtiss hydroplane. The ride was disappointing for Boeing. The plane was extremely uncomfortable, loud and unstable. After talking with Conrad Westervelt, the two men decided they could build a better plane. Before Boeing and Westervelt could build their own plane, someone needed to learn to fly. Taking lessons from NAHF enshrinee Glenn Martin, Boeing hastily learned the basics of flight and immediately after soloing, he bought a plane and went back to Seattle. The plane, a Martin designed seaplane, most technological advanced plane of its time, succumbed to erratic flying shortly after it arrived in Seattle. Narrowly escaping injury it was Boeing who wrecked the plane. Replacement parts were ordered from Martin, but without Fed Ex, the parts, at the bear minimum would take weeks to arrive. Knowing they could build a better airplane, and deciding there was no time to wait for parts, Boeing and Westervelt dismantled the plane and began to study its design and construction. Using the design structure of the Martin plane, Boeing’s version featured greater wingspan and lighter construction, but most importantly new pontoons, which they blamed for causing the accident. The boatyard in Seattle’s harbor was converted to a semi aircraft plant employing skilled workers from his boating facility to construct an airplane. The “mallard,” the first of two B&W planes, was flown by Boeing himself in its inaugural flight in June 15, 1916. Throughout his life, Boeing possessed the keen sense and ability to capitalize on good prospects. Realizing the importance of the airplane for both civilian transportation and military combat, Boeing formed the Pacific Aero Products Company to “act as a common carrier of passengers and freight by aerial navigation.” The company, renamed the Boeing Airplane Company shortly thereafter, was financed largely by a loan borrowed from a bank in which Boeing owned about 75% of, he also used his personal account as collateral. With the possibility of WWI looming overhead, Boeing advocated military aviation and Westervalt, now in the procurement office of the Navy, urged Boeing to apply for government contracts supplying airplanes to the Navy. Winning the contract was effortless for Boeing, but he was missing an integral piece of airplane manufacturing - an engineering department. His chief engineer, T. Wong, had recently resigned and Westervelt serving with the Navy in Washington D.C. Resourcefully, Boeing solved the problem by offering the University of Washington a wind tunnel in exchange for establishing an aeronautical engineering course and filtering the best graduates to Boeing. The war soon ended and Boeing’s government contracts were cancelled and the airplane industry as a whole came to a halt. Instead of folding up his business, Boeing adapted and retuned to building boats. Boats however, could not sustain his business, so Boeing started manufacturing bedroom furniture, armchairs and even looked at the lucratively of manufacturing ouija boards. Boeing went so far as to pay his employees out of his own pocket or in stocks. In fact, there is a tale of a janitor who collected stocks from employees who considered them useless; eventually the stocks made him a fortune. The Boeing Airplane Company’s lean years came to an end when Boeing was approached by Eddie Hubbard. The smart, yet cocky Hubbard was recently kicked out of the Army for jeopardizing the equipment. Developing a theory on how to survive a deadly spin, Hubbard tested it on a government plane. The theory panned out, but the Army didn’t appreciate testing it on their planes. Airmail was in is initial stages when Hubbard convinced Boeing of the futility of obtaining a government contract to fly mail internationally, from Seattle to British Columbia. Airmail was flown by the government, but Hubbard realized the limitations of the government and proposed the possibility of establishing an international airmail route. The government agreed to a trial period and the two men flew the first mail over international lines on March 3, 1919, becoming the first venture into the Boeing commercial business. Boeing’s advisors convinced him, however, to give up the contract after the trial period so that the focus and attention of the company was on building airplanes, and he in turn, persuaded Hubbard to bid on the contract. After the Kelly Bill passed opening airmail contracts to the public in 1925, it was Hubbard who again in 1927, convinced Boeing to bid on the San Francisco to Chicago route. The bid Boeing placed for the contract was too low according to the government, which demanded a guarantee that the planes would deliver mail for a specific period of time, even if they were losing money. Anticipating the contracts success, Boeing even posted a bond of $500,000 of his own money for the contract. For this venture, Boeing chartered a new company, The Boeing Transport Company (BAT), which in turn hired the Boeing Airplane Company to build their planes. Resurrecting the Boeing airplane B-1 with few modifications and improvements such as, a metal body construction and more powerful Wasp engine, the company embarked on prosperous future of transportation which still exists today. This first Boeing mass produced commercial aircraft depended on the new Wasp engine designed by NAHF enshrinee Frederick Rentschler. Boeing went so far as to convince the government to hold out on 24 engines so that Boeing could get his first. This time, however, the BAT would not only be flying mail, they expanded to include passengers. Counting on his new planes with comfortable seating, the BAT flew their first passenger, Miss Jane Eads, a reporter on July 1, 1927. Sharply dressed in high heels and a feather boa, Miss Eads stole the show. Within the first year, BAT transported 1,300 tons of mail and 6,000 passengers. By February 1929, the BAT became the largest aviation company. Boeing shrewdly purchased airmail routes and small aircraft companies, often purchasing failing companies with the insurance that the employees maintained their jobs. William Boeing retired in 1934 after he was ordered to break up his company conglomerate, walking away from a company he built from the ground up and poured so much of his money and resources into trying to keep it afloat after WWI. In the end, the public highly scrutinized Boeing’s acquisitions and the money which flowed from his acute business sense. Just before his retirement, Boeing was awarded the coveted Daniel Guggenheim Medal for “his vision and willingness to spend his money that has resulted in the formation of one of the best manufacturing and transport organizations in the world.” Accepting the award he said, “as the past years devoted to aircraft activities have been filled with real romance, the many forward projects not in the making will continue to keep me on the sidelines as a keen and interested observer.”