Boeing, Aviation Pioneer, the Early Years
By: Norm Goyer
When the average person thinks of Boeing the thoughts turn to airliners,
fantastic aircraft seem to keep coming out of the factory almost every year.
Folks who remember World War II, will never forget the Boeing B-17 Flying
Fortress. Almost all the pilots who flew the mighty fortress also think of the
Stearman PT-17 they learned to fly in, but in reality it was a Boeing PT-17.
World War II came to a sudden end when a Boeing B-29 Super Fortress dropped two
atom bombs on Japan and it was over in weeks. But you may wonder where this
super successful airplane manufacture came from? How did they manage to rise to
the top in so many different time eras and categories? Even trans Atlantic and
Pacific crossings were pioneered in the Boeing famous Clipper series the Boeing
314, what a beautiful airplane. Let us take a time capsule and travel back to
the very beginnings of one of the most powerful aircraft and space vehicle
manufacturer in the World, Boeing.
The first Boeing factory in Seattle, Washington.
The first Boeing aircraft was the B & W built in 1916. The B stands for Boeing
and the W stands for Naval Officer Conrad Westervelt who helped Bill Boeing
design the twin float seaplane for private use. This quite successful early
biplane was the jumping off design for all future Boeing aircraft. Why a
seaplane? Boeings converted wood working factory was located in Seattle,
Washington, which is surrounded by water. The factory employed local craftsmen
and artisans needed in the field of wood and fabric aircraft construction. Added
to the experienced employee workers in the area, the great North West is where
most of the Sitka Spruce is grown, the undisputed first choice for wood
aircraft. No other wood is as good as Sitka Spruce, the wood is strong, clear of
knots and has an excellent strength to weight ratio. This wood is still the
mainstay of many Experimental aircraft. A wood aircraft properly built, glued
and protected from the elements will produce an aircraft that is solid, strong,
quite, easy to repair and easy to work into complex structures. A large number
of airports have spruce constructed aircraft that are over 60 years old and
still flying. Wood is nature’s composite composed of strong fibers held together
by natural resin, very similar to fiberglass epoxy reinforced structures.
Boeing’s first airplane was the 1916 B & W, a small sport seaplane.
Soon after World War I surplus de Havilland DH-4s were being used for the infant
air mail industry. Being a World War I design, the fuselage was build up from
wood longerons, plywood formers and shaping stringers, then covered with linen.
The Air Mail division wanted a metal fuselage framework. Boeing then invented an
arc welder to replace the gas welder so speed up the welded steel tubing
fuselages. These rebuilt DH-4M were then upgraded further with modern equipment
and became the backbone of the United States Air Mail Service. Boeing eventually
built about 200 of these aircraft. This experience in building biplanes with
metal tubing fuselages set the stage for more military orders.
The Boeing P-12/F4B was a very popular between-the-wars pursuit aircraft.
Boeing build a number of biplane fighter bombers such as the PW-9D and the
follow-up FB-5. These aircraft were the last liquid cooled fighters that the
Navy ever ordered for carrier use. The switch began to Pratt & Whitney and
Wright radial engines. The last biplane fighter that Boeing would build for the
military was the P-12/F4B-4 one of most compact high performance biplane fixed
landing gear fighters ever. The biplane continued to be a big profit center for
Boeing with over 10,000 PT-17s and their varients being built between 1933 and
1945. The famous Kaydet taught a huge percentage of our miitary pilots to fly.
After the war over 4,000 were converted to ag planes. Most were further upgraded
with Pratt & Whitney 450 hp engines, many removed from surplus BT-13s that were
not very popular in the surplus market. The last fighter that Boeing built
before World War II was the cute little P-26 Peashooter, an open cockpit, low
wing, fixed gear that looked more like a racing plane than a fighter.
The last fighter aircraft Boeing built was the early 1930’s P-26 Peashooter; this
obsolete aircraft actually shot down a Zero during the Pearl Harbor raid.
While building mail planes Boeing discovered that many people wanted to fly
along with the mail and for the first time considered building airplanes for the
sole purpose of carrying people. The first successful “airliner” was the Model
40A biplane which could carry four passengers and an open cockpit for the pilot.
One of the most revolutionary commercial airplanes was the Boeing Model 200
Monomail. The Monomail was a low wing all metal cantilever construction that
still had an open cockpit with six enclosed passenger seats. The aircraft also
had retractable landing gear. Unfortunately the aircraft was more sophisticated
than current technology. The design required a low pitch prop for take off and a
high prop for high speed cruise. But, they weren’t quite available as yet so a
compromised propeller had to be used diminishing the performance.
The Boeing 307 Stratocruiser was the last civilian aircraft Boeing built before World War
II
The first modern airline for the day was the Boeing 247 which held 10 people
including two man crew and for the first time, another Boeing innovation, a
stewardess who was required to also be a registered nurse. The 247 first flew in
1933. In 1938 the first Boeing four engine transport took flight from Seattle
Sound. The Boeing Clipper held 74 passengers and a crew numbering from six to
ten. This aircraft could fly up to 5200 miles at about 200 mph. Boeing than took
the wing from the developing B-17 and designed a new fuselage for passenger
work. The Boeing 307 Stratocruiser was born. It held 33 passengers and five
crewmen. Boeing also created a third cabin crew in the form of a flight
engineer. In all ten 314s were built and all were pressed into service during
the war as troop transports. When the war ended Boeing rebuilt the surviving
aircraft to passenger standards and they flew for TWA until 1951.
So as you can see, Boeing’s military aircraft, the B-17, B-29, B-50, B-47 and B-52
were all part of an aviation dynasty. A few years ago Boeing moved its corporate
headquarters to Chicago leaving Seattle with the manufacturing facilities.
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