William E. Boeing: How The Son of an Immigrant Became The King of Aviation

William E. Boeing has one of those name where he needs no introduction. A titan in his heyday, Boeing at one point controlled not only the multibillion dollar aerospace giant behind the 737 and 747, but also United Airlines and United Technologies too.

But this was not to last however, Boeing’s enterprises got so big and he got so powerful that he eventually caught the attention of the federal government, who tore his empire down to the ground in 1934 and caused William to leave the aviation business all together…

Early Life

A scion of a wealthy family from the town of Hohenlimburg (now a neighborhood in the city of Hagen, Germany) Wilhelm Böing joined the Prussian Army in 1866 and served in the Austro-Prussian War before migrating to America in 1868.

Though unlikely to inherit much of the family’s money and having only a few job prospects back home in Europe, Wilhelm’s decision to not ask for his father’s permission to migrate to the US angered his father greatly.

In fact, Wilhelm’s father was so angry that he cut his son off from the family’s money, crippling Wilhelm financially. Arriving in the US virtually penniless, Wilhelm had to work dozens of odd jobs to survive.

Eventually, he found work at a lumberyard and fell in love with the business. Not long after marrying his wife, Marie (the daughter of his close friend and boss), Wilhelm got into the lumber business for himself.

Buying timberland around Lake Superior, Wilhelm quickly made a fortune as demand for timber was increasing exponentially along the East Coast. Indeed, he became so successful that he could live away from his timber operations in a cozy house in Detroit, Michigan.

And it was into this family where William Edward Boeing was born on October 1 1881 in Detroit, Michigan. Growing up, the young Boeing had a special relationship with his father, being his father’s close confidant in all things business-related.

But then, tragedy struck. Whilst returning from a business trip in New York in 1890, Wilhelm Böing contracted influenza and died, leaving an eight-year old William as the head of the family.

William’s mother remarried not long after, this time to a Virginia doctor – a man who William despised.

At the age of 13, William’s mother and stepfather sent him away to a prestigious Swiss boarding school, with him only returning years later to attend a Boston prep school. After graduating in 1900, Boeing enrolled at Yale.

A Start in Business

Studying engineering on a three-year course, William dropped out at the end of his second year to enter the lumber business, after deciding he could no longer be near his hated stepfather.

Knowing the best lumber was further west, William headed to Washington state, winding up in the town of Hoquiam, where he bought several hundred acres of timberland on the Olympic Peninsular of the nearby Grays Harbor estuary bay.

Thanks to his involvement with his father’s lumber business years prior, William E. Boeing soon made a small fortune in the lumber business, primarily shipping his lumber to the East Coast, who were in constant need of more wood.

Using the small fortune he’d earned, William began buying and/or starting several other companies to act as “side ventures” whilst lumber remained his primary interest.

Acquiring several business that were somehow related to the timber industry, usually using timber in some way, by far the largest side venture was the Greenwood Timber Company, a shipyard that specialized in building high-end wooden yachts.

It was due his various businesses that Boeing attended the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909, where he first a manned heavier-than-air aircraft take flight.

Although he didn’t get to fly himself for another five years, William Boeing knew immediately that aviation was something he was born to do.

Boeing signed up for flight lessons at the Glenn L. Martin Flying School in Los Angeles and bought a Martin TA Floatplane in 1915, which Boeing hired a whole team to keep maintained for him.

Starting Boeing

Receiving his new aircraft, Boeing immediately noted how outdated it was, despite it being brand new from the factory. Wanting to modernize it, he had his maintenance team do some major upgrades on the aircraft, primarily adding a newer, better pontoon.

Despite making these modifications, the Boeing’s Martin TA Floatplane still crashed into Lake Washington during the middle of a test flight.

Now seriously unimpressed with the aircraft he’d paid lots of money for, William Boeing reached out to his close friend Lieutenant George Conrad Westervelt, a US Navy engineer who William knew also had a passion for aviation.

Getting together, William said to Westervelt “We could build a better plane ourselves and build it faster.” And Westervelt agreed. To that end, William E. Boeing and Lt. Conrad Westervelt sat down to design what they called the B & W Seaplane.

An amphibious biplane, the B & W Seaplane had two pontoons instead of the one that was the industry standard at the time. Whilst this may not seem like much, this made it easier to land the aircraft, as well as control it on the water.

The first prototype was completed in June 1916, and had its first flight on June 15 1916. With the first flight proving successful, William chose to enter the aviation business and incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Co. a month later to the day.

By this time, however, the Navy had moved Lt. Westervelt to the East Coast meaning that the company had lost its star engineer. Needing to find one, and find one soon, Boeing hired Wong Tsu, a Chinese aeronautical engineer and MIT graduate.

Westervelt’s departure also allowed Boeing to rename the company “Boeing Airplane Company” with him as the company president.

WWI And Postwar Decline

Having initially offered the Navy the B & W Seaplane (renamed the Boeing Model 1 after Westervelt’s departure), the Navy rejected the aircraft seeing no use for the aircraft in the near future.

Not satisfied by being told “no”, Wong Tsu and the Boeing Airplane Company designed the Boeing Model 2, better known as the Boeing Model C, which was more advanced than any other trainer the Navy had at the time.

With the US’s entrance into WWII in April 1917, the Navy placed an order for 51 Model Cs, which became Boeing’s first aircraft contract.

Needing a place to build the aircraft and people to build them, Boeing made a plan.

He converted his shipyard on the Duwamish River near Seattle into a makeshift aircraft factory (becoming the Boeing Plant 1), which was conveniently located right next to hundreds of acres of timberland Boeing owned, and hired 30 employees to help him.

Growing exponentially over the course of WWI, Boeing eventually had well over 300 employees and was producing not only its own designs, but also the designs of other manufacturers under license for the war effort.

The end of the war on November 11 1918, however, spelled doom for Boeing.

With the end of the war, the US military cancelled most of its contracts, including those it held with Boeing and dumped thousands of its older pre-war and early war aircraft on to the open market, essentially killing the same aircraft manufacturers it had used to win WWI.

Unable to get military contracts or sell aircraft to civilians, Boeing soon fell on hard times. Yet, William E. Boeing refused to fire his staff to save himself. Instead, he repurposed his factory to make wooden furniture.

But this still wasn’t enough. Whilst his company was still bringing in some money, Boeing was still having to pay his employees $700 out of his own pocket per week, or roughly $12,700 adjusted for inflation, which he sourced from his other businesses.

Revival

Also making money by building flat-bottomed wooden boats called Sea Sleds, Boeing soon came to realize that whilst there was no profit in the amphibious aircraft market, there was profit in the flying boat market.

You see, whilst the Navy had gotten rid of many of their older flying boat designs, they hadn’t done it to the same magnitude that they’d done it with amphibious aircraft.

This led Boeing to believe that a good enough design would be just what operators were looking for, and they’d built hundreds of them. Designing it personally, this aircraft became the Boeing B-1 and first flew on December 27 1919.

However, Boeing had misjudged the market and struggled to sell the B-1. Ultimately, only the B-1 prototype was built, and it spent eight years delivering airmail between Seattle, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia.

Salvation came for the company in May 1920, when the US military awarded Boeing a contract to modernize its de Havilland/Airco DH.4 fleet. Completing the contract by June, the US military’s contract saved Boeing from bankruptcy.

Though a kick in the teeth for Boeing, the failure of the B-1 didn’t scare him away from entering the civil market. By all accounts, it did the complete opposite: it made him want to get involved with it even more.

To that end, Boeing designed the Model 8, otherwise known as the BB-L6. Designed specifically for Boeing’s chief test pilot at the time, only one was built, but it became the first aircraft to successfully fly over Mount Rainier, located 59 miles southeast of Seattle.

Boeing even helped to personally design the Model 7, which had many design features in common with the BB-L6.

Expansion

Although he’d made several forays into the civil aircraft business, the military remained Boeing’s largest customer. Even in peacetime.

In 1923, Boeing entered a competition against Curtiss Aircraft to design, and ultimately build, a new pursuit fighter for the US Army Air Service, which ultimately led to them designing the Model 15, better known as the PW9.

Accepting both the Boeing PW9, and the Curtis P-1 Hawk into service, with the first deliveries scheduled to begin in 1925, and Boeing ultimately ended up developing the PW9 into its FB2, FB3 and P-12/FB4 fighters.

Not only did this make Boeing the US military’s largest supplier of fighter aircraft for the next decade, it also gave them a reputation for producing small, yet durable wooden fighters that could stand toe-to-toe with anything any other country had!

Still wanting to enter the civil world as he’d been trying to do since founding the company, Boeing built the Model 40 for the US Post Office to replace their ageing, ex-military DH.4 fleet.

The first Model 40 rolled off the assembly line in 1925 and the aircraft had its first flight on July 20. The Model 40 then entered service almost two years later on July 1 1927, with over 80 being built, becoming Boeing’s first successful commercial aircraft.

United Aircraft & Transport Corporation

Boeing saw an opportunity to expand when the US Post Office announced it was privatizing its airmail routes.

No longer having a contract with the US Post Office to deliver Boeing Model 40s, Boeing instead chose to establish Boeing Air Transport in 1927 and took possession of the Model 40s initially intended for the US Post Office.

Growing quickly, owing mostly to the fact it was one of only two airmail airlines on the West Coast, William E. Boeing himself personally led Boeing Air Transport’s 1928 takeover of Pacific Air Transport – its main competitor.

Continuing to grow exponentially, Boeing added aircraft manufacturer Chance Vought and propeller maker Hamilton Aero Manufacturing to his portfolio in 1928.

Using their newfound power, Boeing introduced the Model 80, a 12-passenger biplane solely designed to transport passengers. Entering service with Boeing Air Transport in September 1928, it became the first airliner with a designated flight attendant on board.

Yet, having by one of the largest aviation empires on the planet was not enough for Boeing. He wanted more.

In 1929, William E. Boeing bought Pratt & Whitney – the company that produced Boeing’s engines – from its owner-founder Frederick Rentschler.

Now having various holdings in the aviation industry, Boeing chose to incorporate a holding company called the United Aircraft & Transport Corporation (UATC) to hold the stock of all his aviation businesses.

By doing this, it not only increased their profits tenfold, as they were able to spread profits and lower costs easier, it also gave them a near-monopoly on the aviation industry, that was one of the first truly national American companies.

Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, UATC had facilities along the East Coast, the Mississippi River and the West Coast, in a time when even the largest corporations only had facilities in one or two of these places.

Breakup of United Aircraft & Transport Corporation

Flush with cash from merging all his interests into one company, Boeing acquired aircraft manufacturers Sikorsky Aircraft, Wichita, Kansas-based Stearman Aircraft and propeller maker Standard Steel Propeller in 1929.

Keeping Sikorsky and Stearman as separate entities under the United Aircraft & Transport Corporation banner, Boeing merged Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into Hamilton Standard.

Still flush with cash, and only really having an airmail presence along the West Coast, William E. Boeing acquired National Air Transport, the largest airmail operator in the Northeast and one of the largest US operators of the Ford Trimotor, in 1930.

Even spending a huge sum of money buying out NAT did nothing to stop UATC’s growth and by 1933, half of all airmail and passengers in the US were being transported by them, almost solely onboard UATC-made aircraft, mostly Boeings.

Yet, as they say, all good things must come to an end.

In the early 1930’s, Boeing began designing a 10-seat, three-crew, low-wing, monoplane airliner it called the Model 247.

Completed in 1933, the first Boeing 247 flew on February 8 that year and proved faster than the P-12, then the US military’s premier fighter (which was also built by Boeing) and came with brand new innovations like an autopilot and wing deicers.

Realizing that the Model 247 was going to make his airlines rich, Boeing reserved the first 60 for the airlines it owned.

Whilst seemingly a great business move, this spelled disaster for Boeing, as this gained attention from the federal government, who began investigating them on antitrust grounds.

After a quick trial, Congressed passed the Air Mail Act of 1934, which had the provision in it that aircraft manufacturers couldn’t own airlines and vice-versa, which was designed to almost solely target United Aircraft & Transport Corporation.

With the passing of the Air Mail Act of 1934, UATC was broken into three separate companies:

• Boeing Airplane Company, which handled all of UATC’s aircraft manufacturing concerns west of the Mississippi
• United Aircraft, which handled all of UATC’s aircraft manufacturing concerns east of the Mississippi
• United Air Lines, which handled all of UATC’s flight operations

Later Life

Though William E. Boeing was the owner of all three companies, the federal government breaking up his companies – his life’s work – was devastating for him. He could no longer bear to own the three companies if they weren’t one.

Unable to merge them back together legally, and unwilling to own them and operate them as three distinct entities, Boeing chose to sell his shares and retire to his Highlands mansion at the tender age of 53.

Having millions of dollars thanks to the sale of his Boeing stock, William began investing his time in thoroughbred horse breeding in 1937, eventually becoming one of the best horse breeders on the West Coast.

Aside from horse breeding, Boeing also began to buy up huge portions of land just north of the Seattle city limits.

Much like other cities in the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s, Seattle’s population experienced a population boom due to urbanization and immigration. And these people needed houses to live in.

Building on much of the land he owned, Boeing singlehandedly built the modern-day neighborhoods of Richmond Beach, Richmond Heights, Innis Arden, Blue Ridge, and Shoreview.

And here’s where William E. Boeing’s legacy as an aviation pioneer gets tarnished somewhat.

As was common at the time, Boeing only sold the houses he built to “Whites or members of the Caucasian race” with the specific provision that when they came to sell it, they too would only sell, rent or lease it to “members of the White or Caucasian race”.

However, Boeing did allow people not of the “White or Caucasian races” to live in the houses he built… providing that they were employed as a domestic servant of a member of the “White or Caucasian races”.

Death

Although he no longer owned any stock in Boeing, William E. Boeing maintained a longstanding relationship with the Boeing board and chief executives, with them occasionally turning to him for advice on how to run the company that bears his name.

To that end, he even attended the 1954 unveiling of the Boeing 367-80, the prototype that would eventually become the Boeing 707 – the company’s first jet airliner (and that incidentally put Boeing ahead of their competitor, Douglas Aircraft).

Interestingly, it was his wife who christened the jet too.

Beyond investing in real estate and thoroughbred horse breeding, Boeing also enjoyed yachting, spending much of his later life sailing off the coast of British Columbia. He even became a leading member of the Seattle Yacht Club.

Three days before his 75th birthday, on September 28 1956, William E. Boeing set sail on his yacht Taconite as he did quite often. Whilst sailing in Puget Sound, Washington, William suffered a heart attack as was pronounced dead on arrival at the Seattle Yacht Club.

At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated at $22 million, or roughly $220 million adjusted for inflation.

Though he may not have been the richest man in the world at the time (that was J. Paul Getty who had a net worth of roughly $1.2 billion at the time, or roughly $10.11 billion also adjusted for inflation), he was comfortably one of the richest living Americans at the time.

He was survived by his wife, Bertha and son, William Jr. (who inherited most of his unbuilt land, horses etc.) William was also survived by his two stepsons, Nathaniel “Nat” Jr. and Cranston Paschall, from his wife’s first marriage, who he helped raise.

After a quick funeral attended by his close friends and family as well as the entire Boeing board, William E. Boeing was cremated per his wishes and his ashes were scattered off the coast of British Columbia; his favorite sailing location.

In 1966, William E. Boeing was posthumously inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio and the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in 1984.

The Museum of Flight in Seattle also holds the William E. Boeing Sr. Papers, a large collection of Boeing-related papers and photographs.

Legacy

Naturally, as the man behind not one, but three aviation giants, all of which survive to the present day in some form or another, William E. Boeing has left perhaps the largest legacy of any aviation pioneer ever…

Boeing

Beyond establishing the company and serving as its namesake, William E. Boeing also ran the company for its first 18 years, turning it from nothing into a major player in the industry.

Indeed, the story of their namesake is a sort-of urban legend at Boeing, with every executive from William E. Boeing onwards being told of the incredible life of their founder and how without his brilliance, the company would’ve likely not survived infancy.

Despite being distraught that his company had been taken from him, when the US entered WWII in December 1941, Boeing came out of retirement to volunteer as a consultant to the company he founded.

Drawing on his experiences running Boeing during WWI, William Boeing helped make sure his company didn’t make the same costly mistakes he did during WWI, again in WWII.

Ultimately, this allowed Boeing to produce two of the most instrumental bombers of the entire war, in the form of the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress.

United Airlines

By 1931, William E. Boeing’s UATC owned five airlines outright, including National Air Transport, Boeing Air Transport and Pacific Air Transport. Though they essentially operated as one airline, legally they were five separate ones and were all sister companies under the UATC umbrella.

Wanting to consolidate them all into one airline, UATC established United Air Lines, Inc. on March 28 1931 as a subsidiary to hold the stock in all the UATC-owned airlines.

Though owned by United Air Lines, these five airlines retained their names and individual liveries until UATC was broken up and United Air Lines became an independent company.

Following this, all the subsidiaries were rolled into United Air Lines, with all their aircraft being slowly repainted in United colors, creating in effect, the largest single air carrier in the US by 1940.

United Technologies

Over the 1920’s, William E. Boeing acquired Hamilton Standard, Chance Vought and Sikorsky before merging with Pratt & Whitney to form the United Aircraft & Transport Corporation.

When it was broken up in 1934, all of its aircraft manufacturing operations east of the Mississippi (primarily those aforementioned companies) became known as United Aircraft, and as United Technologies after a name change in 1975.

Had Boeing never acquired them, chances are that they would’ve either remained independent, been absorbed by one of Boeing’s competitors or would’ve simply gone out of business between then and now.

Though these companies simply remember their time under Boeing’s ownership as “something that happened years ago” to quote one employee, William E. Boeing’s influence on the companies remain.

Much like he demanded perfection 100% of the time when he owned them, so did the CEOs that came after him, regardless of whether it was with United Aircraft, United Technologies or the more recent Raytheon Technologies name on the door.

Aviation Industry

As the US military’s go-to supplier of fighter aircraft in the 1920’s and 1930’s, Boeing’s rivals were constantly angling for Boeing’s throne, by creating newer fighters that they hoped would be better than the one Boeing had designed.

In turn, this led to new aircraft like the Curtiss P-1 and Fokker D.XI (also known in USAAS service as the Fokker PW-7) being produced, though they never as successful as their Boeing counterparts.

Whilst Boeing was distracted dealing with the Congressional inquiry looking to breakup his company, Boeing’s main rival Douglas Aircraft was busy developing the DC-1/DC-2 to contend with the Boeing 247.

Although only one DC-1 was built, 198 DC-2s were built. The DC-2 was then developed into the now-famous DC-3, which was produced a grand total of 16,000 times including all variants.

Had Boeing not built the Boeing 247, and then allocate the first 60 for the airlines he owned, essentially freezing production for other airlines, they’d have never turned to Don Douglas for help, and he’d never have built the DC-1.

Without the DC-1, there would be no DC-2, and thus no DC-3, DC-4, DC-5 and so on.

And without the DC-3/C-47, Douglas would’ve likely never gotten as big (and indeed as famous!) as it did our timeline. No DC-3/C-47 also has ramifications for how the Allies operate during the war, as the C-47 was vital to quite a few key missions.

Though we will never know with any certainty, the Axis may have won WWII without the Allies having the DC-3/C-47, an airliner built because of William Boeing’s perceived greed…

What do you think about William E. Boeing? Should he have quit when he did or not? Tell me in the comments!