Aviation Express

The Boeing Company was started in 1916 when American timber salesperson William E. Boeing founded Aero Products Company. Shortly before doing so, he and Conrad Westervelt created the "B&W" seaplane. In 1917, the organization was renamed Boeing Airplane Company, with William Boeing forming Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation in 1928. In 1929, the company was renamed United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, followed by the acquisition of several aircraft makers such as Avion, Chance Vought, Sikorsky Aviation, Stearman Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, and Hamilton Metalplane.

In 1931, the group merged its four smaller airlines into United Airlines. In 1934, the manufacture of aircraft was required to be separate from air transportation. Therefore, Boeing Airplane Company became one of three organizations to arise from dissolution of United Aircraft and Transport; the other two groups were United Aircraft Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation) and United Airlines.

In 1960, the company bought Vertol Corporation, which at the time, was the biggest independent fabricator of helicopters. During the 1960s and 1970s, the company diversified into industries such as outer space travel, marine craft, agriculture, energy production and transit systems.

In 1995, Boeing partnered with Russian, Ukrainian and Anglo-Norwegian organizations to create Sea Launch, a company providing commercial launch services sending satellites to geostationary orbit from floating platforms, and five years later, acquired the satellite segment of Hughes Electronics.

• 707

• 717

• 727

• 737

• 747

• 757

• 767

• 777

• 787

• 777X

• Boeing NMA

• Y1/737RS