Boeing : Plane-Makers of Distinction

By Peter Dancey

This book is a history of Boeing 'Giants of the jet age'. It looks at the company and its secrets of success following the philosophy of its founder William Boeing. Its miraculous recovery on more than one occassion from bankruptcy. Its airplanes, WW I biplane trainers and fighters, piston and jet-engined airliners, mergers and take-overs. The Raptor, and Dreaamliner, military and civil airplanes for the twenty-first century

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781447701422

Book preview

1963.

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Chapter 1 Seattle -- the beginnings

William Edward Boeing was born on 1 October 1881 in Detroit, to a German immigrant family involved in the timber trade. Boeing was educated both in the United States and abroad, but in 1903, just one year short of graduating from Yale University, he moved to Washington State, where he purchased some forestry land, setting himself up in the timber business. From 1908, Boeing was based in Seattle, running a successful business which permitted him to take an interest in flying, along with his friend Thomas F Hamilton, who was the first man to fly a plane in Seattle. On 4 July 1914, aviation pioneer, Terah Marony, who was visiting Seattle, allowed Boeing aboard his Curtiss flying-boat.

In 1914, at the age of 34, Boeing himself learned to fly and acquired his pilot’s licence, but was not happy with the training plane on which he received his flying lessons. However, he had enjoyed the experience so much, he decided to purchase his own Martin seaplane, as living in an area with many huge lakes and few airfields this was a more practical proposition than a conventional land-based aircraft. Whilst flying made a great hobby, Boeing could see the great commercial possibilities in flight, particularly in Washington State with mile after mile of forests, lakes and wilderness. Having made a study of exactly how the Martin seaplane was built, through his friend Thomas Hamilton, Boeing met G. Conrad Westervelt, a young naval officer and engineer that was also a keen flyer and following their flight in Marony’s flying-boat, the two men decided to design and build their own seaplane. They took possession of a large shed on the edge of Union Lake and started to build their first aircraft.

The aircraft was built of wood, wire and linen. It was built not by engineers and assembly line workers but by shipwrights, woodworkers and seamstresses. Design, engineering and production were supervised by Clairmont L Egtvedt, Tsu Wong and Philip G. Johnson. Like most airplanes of the era it was a biplane with two wings set one above the other and as a seaplane was fitted with two large floats in place of wheels to permit it to land on water. With a 93kW (125hp) Hall-Scott A-5 engine it attained a top speed of 120km/h (75mph) it was a great improvement over other aircraft of the day.

On 29 June 1916, the two-seat B&W Seaplane (from the two men’s initials -- Boeing and Westervelt) took to the air, and flew well. So well in fact, that Boeing, with a capital of $100,000 decided he would set up his own aircraft manufacturing company; Pacific Aero Products Inc. on 15 July 1916, and devote himself entirely to the business of building aeroplanes, on the shore of Lake Union, in the hope the US Navy might take an interest in his seaplanes. However, he was to be disappointed, and indeed he soon had to do without the help of Cdr Westervelt, whom the Navy had transferred elsewhere.

Meanwhile, on 26 April 1917, having moved its headquarters to the Heath Shipyard on the banks of the Duwanish River, the firm was renamed, Boeing Airplane Company, building landplanes, marine aircraft and fifty ‘C’ trainers for the US Navy. With a staff of twenty-four, with the lowest salary at 14 cents an hour, and the highest (pilots) on about $300 per month, Boeing needed to find $700 per week for wages. In addition, he had to buy the wood and other raw materials to make the aeroplanes, and rent the factory in which to build them. However, it was not long before Boeing was to achieve success as with the United States entry into World War I in 1917, he found himself building military training aircraft and flying-boats for the US Navy. Boeing offered his Model C floatplane training aircraft (copy of Martin training plane) to the Navy, which placed an order for 50. On the strength of this order, in 1917, the Boeing Airplane Company was established at Seattle, Washington, with its headquarters and office at the ‘Red Barn’. Boeing was already doing well out of the war. However, this was not to last, as within eighteen months the war was over and no more planes were needed, with the Government cancelling all military contracts. For Boeing this was almost a disaster, with many war-surplus aircraft flooding the market. No new aeroplanes were wanted, and he was forced to cut his staff to two, and paying the bills out of his own money, he was forced to manufacture boats and furniture to keep the company going, although most of the huge factory lay empty.

Nonetheless, Boeing’s tenacity and will to succeed kept him going and eventually led him in another direction. He built a Boeing Model C-700 flying-boat for his pilot partner Eddie Hubbard to carry the mail between Seattle and Vancouver for the Canadian Post Office with its inaugural flight on 3 March 1919. Later on 15 October 1920, operating as Hubbard Air Transport he made the first international airmail flight between Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia, using a Boeing B-1 flying-boat. The B-1, was Boeing’s first commercial airplane, and first flying-boat of its own design having made its maiden flight on 27 December 1919.

Following a two month probationary period Hubbard was awarded a permanent contract for the 74-mile route which then operated almost daily for the next seven years. A payment of $200, being made for each round trip. Meanwhile, internal airmail services were under the control of the government. However, following initiatives by Clyde Kelly (The Kelly Act) in 1925, in 1927, the U.S Postal Department began the gradual closing down of its internal Airmail Service and advertisements appeared in newspapers asking for bids from private operators. This gave Boeing an opportunity to expand, even though it had already returned to making military aircraft, having received an order in 1921 for 200 MB-3A fighters, at the time the biggest post-war contract.

Boeing Air Transport Inc. won a contract to fly the San Francisco-Chicago mail route and used 24 of its Model 40A aircraft its first most important civil design. Whilst, primarily the Boeing Model 40 was a mail plane the single-engine biplane with an open rear cockpit for the pilot had an enclosed cabin for two passengers between the wings, so that Boeing soon also carried passengers and became an airline operator, called United Air Lines, as well as an aircraft manufacturer. Passengers and mail were carried between Chicago, and San Francisco, and between Seattle and Los Angeles. Soon, by merging with other companies Boeing expanded its business into a huge airline and manufacturing company called the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC). In order to finance its operations the company raised capital by issuing shares allowing members of the public, along with businesses and other institutions to buy shares and own part of the company.

The United Aircraft and Transport Corporation was formed when William Boeing joined forces with Frederick Rentschler and Chance Vought (as a junior partner) in October 1928 after the Boeing Aeroplane Company had been awarded CAM-18, the transcontinental airmail route between Chicago and San Francisco following the second round of the air mail bids in January 1927.

Rentschler had earlier formed Wright Aeronautical from the remains of the WW I Wright-Martin company to manufacture Hispano-Suiza engines. And later after having taken over Lawrance Aero Engine Company at the behest of the Navy to develop Charles L Lawrance’s 200hp air-cooled radial engine, which they preferred to the Hisso engine. In 1924, having developed the Lawrance J-1 into the J-4 Whirlwind, armed with the knowledge and two engine experts (Sam Heron and Ed T. Jones) from the Army’s McCook Field engine research facility where he had developed and perfected a air-cooled cylinder and valve system, Rentschler resigned from Wright Aeronautical. Then taking his two engine men (George Mead and Andy Willgoos) with him, having secured sufficient finance, from Niles-Bement-Pond the company that owned the idle Pratt & Whitney Tool Company in Hartford, Connecticut; he formed the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company using Mead and Willgoos to develop the Heron and Jones air-cooled cylinder design to quickly produce the 400hp R-1340 Wasp, the first, Pratt & Whitney engine. A succession of Wasp and Hornet designs that followed were highly successful and as is now well known Pratt & Whitney never looked back although now they are owned by another giant among aero engines also founded in the early 1920s, Rolls Royce of Great Britain.

Within a year Boeing and Rentschler had acquired, mostly by way of stock swaps, Hamilton Propellers, Standard Steel Propellers, Stearman, Northrop and Sikorsky. Later Boeing Air Transport joined the group as United Air Lines. In February 1929, United Aircraft and Transport Corporation was made up of four separate divisions.

Comprising :

Chance Vought (navy aircraft)

Sikorsky Aircraft (helicopters)

Pratt & Whitney (engines)

Hamilton Standard (propellers)

Until 1926, most of Boeing’s contracts had been for military aircraft, especially fighters, for the USAAS and the US Navy since the company’s success in obtaining the biggest post-WW I military contract for 200 Thomas Morse MB-3As.

From 1921 until the early 1930s Boeing was at the forefront of fighter aircraft design and production, developing new technology and revolutionary production methods. But in 1931, after taking over a number of other aircraft companies, Boeing decided to exploit the potential related to the burgeoning passenger aircraft market, encouraged by the success of its 1930s Model 200 Monomail. A revolutionary all-metal monoplane, with retractable under- carriage, this airplane was the successor to the Model 80, a 12-passenger biplane tri-motor which had first flown in 1928.

In 1933, the Monomail was followed by the Model 247, twin-engine monoplane seating 10-passengers, that in spite of Douglas success with its DC series, is considered as the world’s first modern passenger aircraft.

Although Boeing was kept busy during 1933, producing over 150 single-engine planes, one of which was the highly successful P-26 fighter, by 1937 production had switched almost entirely to four-engine aircraft among them the first B-17 Flying Fortress bombers that made such a tremendous contribution to the Allied war effort. Boeings civil contracts were also for multi-engined designs, including the enormous Model 314 Flying-Boats which enabled Pan Am to inaugurate its trans-oceanic passenger services in 1938.

In 1930, the Boeing Company changed the design of passenger-carrying aircraft forever by producing its Model 200 Monomail, a commercial all-metal monoplane with a low cantilever wing and retractable undercarriage. The Monomail being the successor to the Model 80, a 12-passenger biplane with its reading lamps, ventilators, leather seats and toilets with hot and cold water.

In 1933, it was followed by the Model 247, a twin-engined monoplane seating ten-passengers. The revolutionary B.247, generally considered as the world’s first modern passenger aircraft, lopped seven and half hours off the flight time from New York to Los Angles. It had an all-metal fuselage with retractable undercarriage, two cantilevered wings with two super-charged radial engines encased in smooth cowlings, and the engines fitted with variable-pitch propellers. It had de-icer ‘boots’ on the wings and tail a crew of two pilot’s and a stewardess, and a ten-seat passenger cabin. Boeing Air Transport (part of UATC) ordered 60 straight off the drawing board, at a cost of $60,000 each, with a further fifteen to be manufactured for export. Trans World Airlines (TWA) also tried to order the aircraft, but UATC declined the order as they could not fulfil it. As a result TWA went to Boeing’s rival Donald Douglas and the Douglas Aircraft Corp., who soon developed the Douglas DC 2, a superior design that was to eclipse the B.247, leading to the ubiquitous DC-3 and its military derivative the Douglas C-47 Skytrain (Dakota), that was so advanced, economical, and reliable by 1945, it had become the world’s leading airliner-freighter with 13,000 having been built by 1945.

By which time, William Boeing had already retired from the aviation business in bitterness, following the United States governments decision in 1934, passing a law that made it illegal for aircraft manufacturers to have a financial stake in any airline that had a contract to carry mail. The company that Boeing, had built-up had to be split up into three separate parts; United Air Lines and two manufacturing companies -- United Aircraft Corporation and The Boeing Airplane Company. Boeing himself was so disillusioned by what he felt was unfair government interference that he left the company.

Boeing series production 1922-1932

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Boeing Aircraft, established on 5 August 1933, built interesting modern aircraft; the M.200 Monomail, the all-metal B-9 prototype monoplane bomber, the Model B.247 airliner and the P-26 ‘Pea-shooter’ fighter for the USAAC.

In early 1934, manpower reached 1,700 but in 1935 dropped to only 600. The aircraft which actually saved the company from extinction was the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in late 1935. The USAAC ordered 13, and Boeing built a big new plant especially for production of the B-17 at Seattle. Aircraft, such as the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, and M.314A Clipper flying-boat, served to reinforce the Boeing name, and of course the company. The most prestigious in WW II was undoubtedly the B-29 Superfortress heavy-bomber. The Superfortress, eventually used to deliver the thermo-nuclear devices dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, to end the Second World War in the Pacific.

With its founder gone, and no passengers or post to transport, the Boeing Company concentrated on aircraft manufacture, designing them to the highest innovative standards to increase demand. The new chairman, one of Boeing’s original supervisors was Clairmont L Egtvedt, an engineer and draughtsman. Under his guidance the company produced larger and more luxurious aeroplanes. To meet demands for an aircraft to cross the oceans, Boeing built the Model 314 Flying Boat, the first long-haul ocean-crossing airliner, capable of carrying 74-passengers by day or fifty in overnight sleeping accommodation. It was nicknamed the Clipper after the great ocean going sailing ships of the earlier pioneering days. Passengers aboard the Pan Am Clippers crossed the Atlantic or Pacific in style. Seated in spacious salons gazing out of large panoramic viewing windows whilst being served gourmet meals. Also on board these luxurious flying boats were dressing rooms, beds and even a bridal suite. The Model 307 Stratoliner that followed offered even greater luxury, with greater comfort in the pressurised cabin, which meant the aircraft could fly higher and faster, more economically at altitudes ‘above the weather’ with less turbulence.

With the clouds of war gathering once again and with a new man at the helm, William Allen, the company’s former senior lawyer, Boeing turned their attention to manufacturing huge numbers of B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress bombers. History, literally repeated itself and the company put their factories at Seattle and Wichita, Kansas, on a war footing and in 1942, it built another plant near Seattle at Renton. At the Seattle plant manpower continued to increase: to 1,755 in January 1938, 2,960 in December 1938, 8,724 in August 1940 and 28,480 in January 1942, finally peaking at 44,754 in January 1945. From July 1940 to August 1945, Boeing Seattle built 6,942 B-17s and 380 A-20s. At its wartime peak the company employed a total of 78,000 people.

Early in 1941, the US Navy had placed an order for fifty-seven Boeing PBB-1 patrol flying boats. However, at the time, Boeing did not have the resources or the capacity to produce these as all the plants were busy building aircraft for the Army. As a result the Navy decided to build its own plant 10km south of Boeing, on the side of the lake, near the small Renton airfield. The ground was broken on the 38.5 hectare site on the 2 September 1941. But after Pearl Harbour the US Army, requested a new plant to produce the B-29 Superfortress bombers and finally the US Navy ceded the Renton Plant to the Army in June 1942. The first phase of the plant’s construction was finished in March 1943 and preparations for B-29 production were started immediately. 998 B-29s and two C-97s were built by VJ Day, and after, a further 121 B-29s until June 1946. After which, the plant was closed, and returned to the US Navy. Who were to use it as a storage area.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1941, the US Government began building Government Plant 2 (Plant 1 was the Stearman works). The new plant was adjacent to existing Boeing operations at Wichita, Kansas. On completion, the plant with a 120,000m2 covered area,