Boeing

100 Pages·2014·27.936 MB·English

by  Collective

CLASSIC
AIRLINER
FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF
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Establishing Boeing ● Stratocruiser
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AIRLINER
BOEING
STRATOCRUISER AND 707
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ILLIAM BOEING BECAME Fortress bomber of which nearly 13,000 had been the form of the Boeing 707. For a company that
interested in aircraft after seeing built by the time the war ended. They also was not known as a commercial aircraft
early examples at an event in produced the pressurised B-29 Superfortress, manufacturer they simply took over the market
California. He established his which has gone down in history as the aircraft that and dominated the airline scene which they
business and successfully sold aeroplanes to the dropped the atom bombs on Hiroshima and compounded with the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.
United States Armed Forces, as well as forming an Nagasaki to end World War Two. Boeing’s dominance has recently been
air transport operation which used aircraft of his While Boeing were making bombers, Douglas challenged by Airbus with their range of airliners
own making. This led other airlines to buy Boeing and Lockheed had produced troop transports that but Boeing still has a healthy share of the
aircraft and in the years before World War Two were easily adapted as airliners for the post-war commercial airliner market and look set to
Boeing produced some advanced designs, which market. Boeing produced the Stratocruiser but it continue to be part of the scene for many years
included a pressurised airliner and a large was not a success and left the Seattle company to some.
long-range fl ying boat. The outbreak of war meant looking for an alternative. They were busy with the
that air travel was seriously restricted and future USAF jet bomber programme and using that
designs were, naturally, placed on hold. Boeing experience were able to design and introduce François Prins, Editor
forged ahead with their famous B-17 Flying what became the world’s most famous airliner in June 2013
Acknowledgements
Rebecca Gibbs (Production Manager)
Paul Silk & Rob Terry (Art Editors)
Sue Keily (Ad Sales Manager)
All images are from the Aeroplane Archive and the Boeing Company, unless otherwise credited.
For more than a century of aviation history and for further titles in this series, visit
Published by Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Printed at William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Kelsey Publishing Ltd,
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Email: [email protected]. Website: www.kelsey.co.uk. ©2012 ISBN: 978-1-907426-73-5
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CCLLAASSSSIICC AAIIRRLLIINNEERRS |B|COOEIMNEGT 55
Flying replica of the
Boeing Model 1; the
original was designed by
Conrad Westervelt and
fl own in 1916.
The Boeing Company
The mighty Boeing Company had a humble start in Washington State.
B
orn in Detroit in 1881, William Boeing later, Boeing went to Los Angeles, California, to Technology. The two men looked at as many
attended Yale University where he attend the fi rst American air meet. He was impressed examples of aircraft as they could and made a fl ight
studied engineering. In 1903 Boeing left by what he saw and tried to obtain a fl ight in an aboard an early Curtiss-designed biplane, which
Yale and headed Northwest for Gray’s aeroplane, but not one of the dozen aviators impressed neither man. Westervelt later wrote that
Harbour in Washington. Here he was successful in the participating in the event would oblige. Disappoint- he ‘could never fi nd any defi nite answer as to why it
timber industry and went on to greater success in ed, Boeing headed back to Seattle but was deter- held together.’ Both were convinced they could build
Seattle in 1908, where he was involved in a variety of mined to learn more about aviation. a biplane better than any then on the market.
business ventures related to the timber industry. He For the next fi ve years, Boeing explored the
First Model
bought large tracts of woodland, which would stand theory of aviation in conversation at Seattle’s
him in good stead in later years. Boeing also bought University Club with George Conrad Westervelt, a In the autumn of 1915, Boeing returned to California
and operated a furniture factory and a boatyard, both Navy engineer who had taken several aeronautics to take fl ying lessons from aviation pioneer, Glenn
of which used timber from his own forests. Two years courses from the Massachusetts Institute of Martin. Before leaving Seattle, Boeing asked
6
BACKGROUND
The Boeing Company
Westervelt to start designing a new, more practical grew impatient and took the controls himself. As the wind tunnel at the University of Washington (UW),
aeroplane. Construction of the twin-fl oat seaplane pilot rushed to the hangar, he saw Boeing taxi to the so the school could off er courses in aeronautics. He
began in Boeing’s Lake Union boathouse, and was end of the lake, turn, increase power and take-off for also hired Claire Egtvedt and Phil Johnson, both UW
named the B & W, after their initials but known as the a quarter-mile hop. The 125hp Hall-Scott A-5 engine engineering scholars, each of whom would later
Boeing Model 1. To gain experience, Boeing was more than capable and the fl ight was a success. become president of the company.
purchased a Martin fl oatplane on which he could On July 15, 1916, Boeing incorporated his In 1917, the 28-person Boeing payroll also
practise fl ying off water. aeroplane manufacturing business as Pacifi c Aero included pilots, carpenters, boat builders and
Conrad Westervelt was posted east before the Products Co; a year later, he changed the name to seamstresses. The lowest wage was 14 cents an hour,
aircraft was fi nished and William Boeing continued the Boeing Airplane Company. while the company’s top pilots made $200 to $300 a
the project and, in 1916, completed two examples. Boeing retained Wong Tsoo, one of the few month. When the B & W did not sell, Boeing used his
When it was time for the B & W’s fi rst fl ight on June aeronautical engineers in the country, to design own fi nancial resources to guarantee a loan to cover
15, 1916, the pilot hired was late in arriving. Boeing new aircraft for the Seattle enterprise and paid for a all wages, a total of about $700 a week.
CCLLAASSSSIICC AAIIRRLLIINNEERRS |B|COOEIMNEGT 77
He was convinced he could build a biplane better than any on the market
Workers steady the
Boeing Model 1 as it
slides down the
slipway at William
Boeing’s Lake Union
boathouse in 1916.
Boeing F4B fi ghters served
with the US Navy in various
guises in the inter-war years.
8
BACKGROUND
The Model 40 could carry 500lb of mail and two passengers and was operated by Boeing Air Transport.
across the country. Boeing factory superintendent Washington state. William Boeing set out to
Claude Berlin and test pilot Herb Munter produce a series of small commercial fl ying-boats
reassembled the aircraft and fl ew them for Navy and fl oatplanes; only the Model 5 variant sold in
offi cials. The seaplanes performed well and the any quantity, others remained as prototypes with
Navy ordered 50 Model Cs; the company’s fi rst a single example being manufactured. While sales
production order. By May of 1918, 337 people may have been disappointing, the US Army Air
were on the Boeing payroll. Business continued to Service (the Air Corps after 1926) had recovered
expand as the military purchased more aircraft for from lack of funding following the end of World
the war eff ort but the situation changed when the War One and was starting to expand. Boeing was
Armistice came on November 11, 1918; there was quick to seize the opportunity and design their
no requirement for military aircraft, and the Model 15 for the military. Given the offi cial
civilian market was equally depressed. William designation PW-9C, the biplane fi ghter fi rst fl ew
Boeing found he was competing with the mass of on June 2, 1923, and was ordered into production
war-surplus biplanes that fl ooded the market. for the USAAS; the US Navy were also attracted by
Struggling to survive, the company shed most of the PW-9C and ordered for the Marine Corps with
their employees and turned their woodworking the designation FB-1. Boeing would continue to
skills to build dressers, counters and furniture for a develop the single-seat PW/FB series throughout
corset company and a confectioner’s shop, as well the 1920s and evolve the biplane design in to the
as fl at-bottomed boats called sea sleds. monoplane fi ghters that were in service at the end
William Boeing (1881-1956) founded the company
of the 1930s.
but left the board in 1934. Return to Aircraft
To cover the vast continent that is North
(Photo: Boeing)
Matters improved in 1920 when Boeing was America, the US Post Offi ce issued contracts for
By the end of 1917, the United States had contracted to convert 300 British-built de aircraft and pilots to operate an air mail service.
entered World War I, and for the fi rst time Havilland DH 4 aircraft as trainers for the US Army. With his aircraft business now fi nancially secure,
American aircraft were going into battle. Boeing The Army also ordered 200 Thomas Morse MB-3 Boeing looked at the air mail operation and
knew the Navy needed training aeroplanes, and fi ghter aircraft to be licence-built by Boeing. This concluded that if mail could be carried so too
Wong had already designed the Model C order, together with another later in the year, could passengers. When bidding for the Chicago
seaplane, which was a suitable candidate. helped to stabilise the company, which was then to San Francisco route was announced, with a
However, the small seaplane could not fl y all the able to develop a model that would appeal to the start of July 1927, Boeing put in for the contract.
way from Seattle to the Navy base at Pensacola, sportsmen who used the many lakes and rivers in For the purpose of winning the contract, Boeing
Florida, where Navy offi cials were deciding what
to buy.
Undaunted, Boeing had two Model Cs The company’s top pilots made $200 to $300 a month
dismantled, packed in crates and shipped by train
CLASSIC AIRLINER |BOEING 9
The Boeing 247 made a complete break with the past
Clyde Pangborn and Roscoe Turner
came third fl ying this Boeing 247
(NR257Y) in the 1934 MacRobertson
Race to Australia.
The Boeing 247 being run up at RAF
Mildenhall at the start of the MacRobertson
Race to Australia. Parked alongside is the
KLM DC-2 which came second.
built the Model 40, a landplane capable of problems. As Boeing Air Transport grew so too did
carrying 1,000lb of mail plus two passengers in an the need for a larger airliner and in July 1928, the
enclosed cabin. The pilot sat in an exposed cockpit company unveiled their twin-engined Model 80
aft of the wings. Boeing won the contract and the which carried 12 passengers in a comfortable
two dozen aircraft stipulated by the US Post Offi ce cabin. Unlike the cramped unheated two-place
were manufactured and tested in time for the July cabin of the Model 40, the new aircraft had
start. heating, reading lamps, leather upholstered seats
Powered by a single Pratt and Whitney 525hp and hot and cold running water; the pilots were
Hornet radial engine, the Model 40 could carry also brought in from the open cockpit into an
500lb of mail plus the passengers at 125mph, with enclosed fl ight deck. Airliners were changing fast
stops at Salt Lake City and Omaha. to cater for the increasing number of travellers
A new airline, Boeing Air Transport, was who were using aircraft to cross the vast North
created to operate the service and a school to American continent.
train pilots and engineers was established at The Boeing Company had not neglected the
Oakland, California. In the fi rst year of operation, military and continued to supply fi ghter and
Boeing fl ew some 2,000 passengers and mail trainer aircraft to the US Army Air Corps (USAAC)
aboard the Model 40s with no mishaps or The fl ight deck of the Boeing 247. and US Navy. They also designed a sleek all-metal
10