B-Boeing

William E. Boeing was born in Detroit and graduated from Yale University in 1904. He returned home to Seattle in January of 1910, inspired by what had just happened at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and decided to try to fulfill his dream of becoming a major aircraft manufacturer. In 1915 he learned to fly, a and one year later he built his first airplane based on a design by US Naval Officer Conrad Westervelt. It was a small twin engine sea plane consisting of a linen covered wooden skeleton held together with wire. The plane appropriately called the B&W, after Boeing and Westervelt. Two years later the name was changed to Boeing Airplane Company. During WWI Boeing provided planes for the US Navy. The next few years after this, Boeing designed and manufactured several different types of Aircraft. By the time Charles Lindberg awed the world with his successful non stop flight across the atlantic in 1927, Boeing had 800 employees and was a leader among aircraft companies in the US. One year later, he introduced the nations first airplane designed for civilian transportation and added the model to his fleet of planes in a subsidary company, Boeing Air transport, the predecessor of todays United Airlines.

 Crutchfield, James A. It Happened in Washington. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 1999. Print.