William Edward Boeing American aircraft manufacturer, founder of an aircraft manufacturing company Date of Birth: 01.10.1881 Country: USA

Biography of William Edward Boeing

William Edward Boeing, an American aircraft manufacturer and the founder of the Boeing aerospace company, was born on October 1, 1881 in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Yale University but did not receive a degree. In 1903, he moved to Seattle, where he initially worked in the lumber business, just like his father. In 1908, after hearing about the first American aviators' meeting in Los Angeles, Boeing went there and became fascinated with aviation for the rest of his life. For the next five years, it was just a hobby.

In a college club, he met George Conrad Westervelt, a former naval aviator who had completed aeronautical courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The two friends studied all the aircraft designs available at that time and even made a risky flight on one of them, manufactured by American aviation pioneer Curtiss. The plane had a passenger seat on the wing. Reflecting on his first flight, Boeing admitted that he never found the answer to what kept him on that wing.

Boeing flew his first plane in 1915, and the following year, he and his friend began developing the B&W seaplane. On July 15, 1916, William Boeing registered his company under the name Pacific Aero Products, which later changed its name to Boeing Airplane in 1917. By then, the Boeing corporation had 28 employees, including pilots, engineers, carpenters, and seamstresses. The latter two professions were crucial, as aircraft at that time consisted of a wooden fuselage, fabric wings on wooden frames, with only the engine and landing gear made of metal.

Leading test pilots earned several hundred dollars a month, which was quite good for that time. And when the company was not doing well, Boeing covered the expenses from his own funds. Within a year, the number of employees exceeded three hundred. The First World War played a decisive role in this rapid growth. The military sailors liked the hydroplanes specially designed for their needs, and Boeing Airplane immediately received its first significant order: fifty hydroplanes.

The company went through many different periods, always finding a way out of the most challenging situations and continuously developing. Boeing himself was the president of the company for a long time and later became the chairman of the board of directors. In his later years, he retired from business and focused on horse breeding. William Edward Boeing passed away on September 28, 1956.