BOEING COMPANY, THE

American company that was the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft in the second half of the 20th century. It was first incorporated as Pacific Aero Products Company in 1916, renamed the Boeing Airplane Company in 1917, and newly incorporated in 1934. It assumed its current name in 1961 to reflect its expansion into fields beyond aircraft manufacture. The Boeing Company now designs and produces commercial jetliners; fighters, bombers, tankers, surveillance aircraft, helicopters, and missiles for the military; and rocket boosters and other products for space vehicles. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Wash. The company was founded by William E. Boeing (18811956) a few months after he and a U.S. Navy officer, G. Conrad Westerveldt, had developed their B & W seaplane, a two-seater with twin floats. In the 1920s the company built the Model 40 and other planes for carrying mail, along with various military aircraft. In 1928 the company became a component of United Aircraft & Transport Corporation, which merged a number of aircraft manufacturers and airlines under William E. Boeing's chairmanship. In 1934, under new federal antitrust guidelines, aircraft manufacture was divorced from air transport, and Boeing, newly incorporated, became one of three companies to emerge from the dissolution of United Aircraft & Transport (the other two being United Airlines and United Aircraft). U.S. B-17, or Flying Fortress Boeing pioneered in the development of single-wing planes in the 1930s. The company developed several bomber aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortress (first flown in 1935; see photograph) and the B-29 Superfortress (first flown in 1942), that played prominent roles in World War II. After the war Boeing developed the B-52, a long-range heavy bomber that was a mainstay of the United States' strategic forces until the 1990s. In the postwar years the company, while continuing its military commitments, turned also to commercial aircraft, producing in 195455 America's first jet airliner, the Boeing 707, which entered service in 1958 and earned wide popularity throughout the world. The company went on to develop a highly successful series of commercial jetliners. Chief among these were the three-engine Boeing 727 (introduced in 1964) and the 747 (put into service in 1970), a four-engine craft that had twice the carrying capacity of any previous passenger jetliner. In the early 1980s, in response to increasing European and domestic competition, Boeing introduced two new models, the 757 and the 767, both of which needed less fuel and carried smaller flight crews. Boeing's commercial jetliners made it the single largest American exporter in the late 20th century. In 1960 Boeing purchased Vertol Aircraft, then the world's largest independent manufacturer of helicopters. In the 1960s the company designed and built the first stages of the Apollo/Saturn moon rockets and some of the major lunar orbiters. In the 1980s it developed the MX intercontinental ballistic missile and the air-launched cruise missile. Boeing also produced the AWACS and other high-technology surveillance aircraft and helped develop the B-1 bomber. The company ventured into the manufacture of mass-transit railway cars in the 1970s but had abandoned this enterprise by the 1990s. In 1996 Boeing purchased the aerospace and defense electronics businesses of Rockwell International Corporation, and in 1997 it acquired the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, which was a major manufacturer of fighter aircraft. The purchase of McDonnell Douglas removed Boeing's last remaining American competitor in the production of commercial airliners.