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Top 10 Remarquable facts about William Boeing

William Edward Boeing was born on October 1, 1881, in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. He was an American aviation pioneer who founded the Pacific Airplane Company in 1916. He was posthumously inducted in to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966, ten years after his death.

The Pacific Airplane Company was renamed to The Boeing Company a year later. It is the largest exporter in the United States by dollar value and among the largest aerospace manufacturers in the world.

He has been described as being a private person, a visionary, a perfectionist and a stickler for the facts. Below are the top 10 remarquable facts about William Boeing;

1. His parents were migrants

Marie M. Ortmann – WikiTree

William Boeing was born to Marie M. Ortmann, from Vienna, Austria, and Wilhelm Böing from Hohenlimburg, Germany.

His father emigrated to the United States in 1868 and initially worked as a laborer before making his fortune from North Woods timber lands and iron ore mineral rights on the Mesabi Range of Minnesota, north of Lake Superior.

In 1890, when William was eight, his father while in New York contracted influenza. He died during the long train ride back to Detroit. His mother soon married a Virginia physician and left Detroit. Young William, who did not get along with his stepfather.

2. Before the planes, Boeing was in the timber business

Timber production – Flickr

Boeing entered the timber business as he felt the time to do so was ripe, despite knowing very little about timbering. At this time America was undergoing a growth spurt and the nation demanded lumber for new homes and businesses and ambitious industrialists were reaping millions out of the seemingly limitless stands of cedar, spruce, hemlock, and Doug-fir.

He founded the Greenwood Timber Company and with the help of his friend J.H. Hewitt, who had good connections in the timber factory, grew the company. Lumber from the Pacific Northwest was in high demand as a construction material.

He went on to say that one of the advantages of working in the lumber industry was that it “kept one out of the house a lot.”

3. He dropped out of Yale University

Yale University – Flickr

Boeing enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, dropping out in 1903 to go into the lumber business. He moved to Washington state and used his inheritance to begin investing in the timber industry.

However, he was able to found the aerospace company in 1916 using the knowledge gained while attending Yale University and design aircrafts from the knowledge he gained while working in the timber business.

4. Introduction to his first plane

Boeing Model 1 – Wikipedia

William Boeing’s first design was the Boeing Model 1 (or B & W Seaplane), which first flew on 15 June 1916, a month before the company was founded. The plane was completed in June 1916 at Boeing’s boathouse hangar on Lake Union in Seattle. It was flown again in November of the same year.

It was similar to the Martin trainer aircraft that Boeing owned, but the B & W had better pontoons and a more powerful engine.

The Boeing Model 1 was a single-engine biplane seaplane aircraft that carried the initials of its designers, William Boeing and Lt. Conrad Westervelt USN. It was made of wood, with wire bracing, and was linen-covered.

On June 25, 1919, the B&W set a New Zealand altitude record of 6,500 feet.

5. He was dedicated to aviation

Glenn L. Martin in a pusher-biplane – Wikipedia

During the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909, he saw a manned flying machine for the first time and became fascinated with aircraft. Despite many refusals by both local and foreign pilots to teacher him how to fly planes, he never gave up.

Boeing took flying lessons at Glenn L. Martin Flying School in Los Angeles and like university he finished the entire course.

He bought one of Martin’s planes. Martin pilot James Floyd Smith went to Seattle to put together Boeing’s recently-purchased Martin TA hydroaeroplane and give Boeing further training.

6. Sadly, his success came from a dark place

Glenn L. Martin in a pusher-biplane – Wikipedia

Most of William Boeing’s success came as a result of the need for new weapons. World War II was the first major war to be fought with the extensive use of airplanes in a variety of capacities, and airplanes were what Boeing provided.

After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, Boeing hoped that the U.S. Navy would be interested in his Model C as a flight trainer. The Navy tested two Model Cs and was sufficiently impressed to order 50 more of them.

This resulted in a contract worth $575,000 (nearly $14 million in 2021 dollars).

At the time of Boeing’s death in 1956 the company that he had founded had made America’s largest jet bomber, the B-52.

7. William Boeing did the unexpected

William E. Boeing – Wikipedia

In 1934, the United States government accused William Boeing of monopolistic practices. The same year, the Air Mail Act forced airplane companies to separate flight operations from development and manufacturing.

An embittered William Boeing had to give up his ownership and leave the aviation industry. Except for a short executive term during the Second World War, he did not take part again in the operations of the company.

8. What world record does the Boeing’s Everett Factory hold?

Boeing’s Everett Factory – Wikipedia

The Boeing Everett Factory is an airplane assembly facility built by Boeing in Everett, Washington, United States. It sits at the northeast corner of Paine Field.

It is the largest building in the world by volume at 13,385,378 m3 (472,370,319 cu ft) and covers 98.7 acres (39.9 ha). The entire complex spans both sides of State Route 526 (named the Boeing Freeway). There is no single man-made building that’s bigger than Boeing’s Everett Factory.

Boeing Everett Factory was built in 1967 for the Boeing 747 and has since been expanded several to accommodate new airliners, including the 767, 777, and 787 programs.

9. Another world record

The Boeing 747 – Wikipedia

The Boeing 747 is considered the first wide-body aircraft and original “jumbo jet” to be produced and carry passengers. Following the success of the four-engine, partial double-deck Boeing 747 airlines began seeking larger aircraft.

A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast.

They were originally designed for a combination of efficiency and passenger comfort, and to increase the amount of cargo space. However, airlines quickly gave in to economic factors, and reduced the extra passenger space in order to maximize revenue and profits.

10. He was a racist

Housing segregation in the United States – Wikipedia

Throughout the years, he displayed racist tendencies. From 1935 to 1944, he and his wife put aside an extensive area of land north of the Seattle city limits for subdivision, including the future communities of Richmond Beach, Richmond Heights, Innis Arden, Blue Ridge, and Shoreview.

The Boeings placed racially restrictive covenants on their land to enforce segregation, forbidding properties from being “sold, conveyed, rented, or leased in whole or in part to any person not of the White or Caucasian race.”

Non-whites could only occupy a property on the land if they were employed as a domestic servant “by a person of the White or Caucasian race.”