Aviation History
Boeing History: Beginnings - Building a CompanyWe are embarked as pioneers upon a new science and industry in which our problems are so new and unusual that it behooves no one to dismiss any novel idea with the statement, "It can’t be done."
William Boeing
Westervelt was posted East before the plane was finished. Boeing continued the project and, in 1916, completed two B & Ws. When it was time for the B & W’s first flight, the pilot was late. Boeing grew impatient and took the controls himself. As the pilot rushed to the hangar, he saw Boeing taxi to the end of the lake, turn, gun the engine and lift off for a quarter-mile hop.
Although the loss of Westervelt was a setback, it did not affect Boeing's commitment to his fledgling company. On July 15, 1916, Boeing incorporated his airplane manufacturing business as Pacific Aero Products Company; a year later, he changed the name to the Boeing Airplane Company.
Boeing retained Tsu Wong, one of the few aeronautical engineers in the country, to design new planes for the completely unknown West Coast enterprise and paid for a wind tunnel at the University of Washington, so the school could offer courses in aeronautics. He also hired Claire Egtvedt and Phil Johnson, UW engineering school seniors, each of whom would later become president of the company.
In 1917, the 28-person payroll also included pilots, carpenters, boat builders and seamstresses. The lowest wage was 14 cents an hour, while the company's top pilots made $200 to $300 a month. When the B & W did not sell, Boeing used his own financial resources to guarantee a loan to cover all wages — a total of about $700 a week.
By the end of 1917, World War I was under way, and for the first time, American airplanes were going into battle. Boeing knew the Navy needed training airplanes, and Wong had already designed the Model C seaplane. However, the little seaplanes could not fly all the way from Seattle to the Navy base at Pensacola, Florida, where Navy officials were deciding what to buy.
Two Model Cs were taken apart, packed in crates and shipped by train across the country. Boeing factory superintendent Claude Berlin and test pilot Herb Munter reassembled the aircraft and flew them for Navy officials. The seaplanes flew well and the Navy ordered 50 Model Cs — the company’s first production order. By the end of 1918, 337 people were on the Boeing payroll.
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