Boeing

“ For prior to the crisis in the affairs of Hamilton-Standard, United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, having in mind the need for building new transport aircraft designed to carry passengers and mail on a profitable basis, had initiated a joint airplane development headed up by Boeing. ”

“ Bill Boeing, for instance, might have continued to use the war-surplus Liberty-engined DH’s indefinitely, had not competition for the air-mail contract forced him to risk a low bid and then build new aircraft to meet his own standards. And so price competition, which many were beginning to think was cutthroat and destructive, was over-all, the key to progress in aeronautics.
The engine manufacturer, for instance, must experiment with new ideas, conduct research into strange fields, and come up with something [Pg 111] so economical that the airline operator can’t get along without it. ”

“ This statement, of course, took cognizance of the rapid progress in America where, following the development of the air-cooled engine, the controllable-pitch propeller, the Boeing and Douglas transports, the Sikorsky boats, and Lindbergh’s epic flight, commercial aviation had flourished. These products now became Tom Hamilton’s stock in trade and he peddled them most successfully to independent customers whose decisions were dictated by economic considerations rather than those of national prestige. ”

“ By converting several hundred pounds of dead load into as many pounds of paying load, he had demonstrated the fact that no operator could afford to use war-surplus airplanes—even as a gift—in face of that kind of competition. Furthermore, Boeing could build the new planes dirt cheap with the same overhead needed for the military business. He thought the Wasp would revolutionize air transport. His problem was how to get hold of about twenty-five new Pratt and Whitneys right away with the entire production booked for the Navy. ”

“ Out of this episode grew the Boeing Air Transport Company’s profitable operation, the ultimate consolidation of Boeing and Pratt and Whitney, to form the nucleus for the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, and such a profit for Pratt and Whitney on the first order that Rentschler finally came to the Engine Section for advice as to what should be done with the profit. ”

“ An experimental pilot for Boeing Airplane Company testified that should all control pressure be relaxed during an approach maneuver while simulating failure of 50 percent of the power units concentrated on the right side with landing gear extended and flaps 30 degrees extended, the Boeing 707 would yaw and roll to the right. Approximately five to seven seconds would be required to stop the roll before the aircraft reached a 90-degree bank. Recovery could be accomplished by applying full opposite aileron and rudder and reducing power on all engines. ”

“ Out in Seattle, Boeing had staked its future on the conviction of the Young Turks of the Army that a long-range heavy bomber would one day become the backbone of air power, no matter who said it would not. ”

“ From the foregoing, I believe you will agree that evaluation of the need for corrective action on the Boeing 727 series aircraft is well underway. I would also like to make it clear that while the attention is focused on the Boeing 727 series, our consideration will also be given to other transport aircraft. Reassessments of transport aircraft with engines mounted in the rear are presently in process and may well lead to their further improvement.
Every effort is being directed by the Agency to continuously seek improvement of crashworthiness safety features. ”

“ This rare book, filled with photos and diagrams, covers every aspect of Boeing's manufacturing, assembly, and testing at the Michoud Plant in Louisiana of the first stage (S-IC) of the Saturn V rocket. It also covers Boeing's activities at NASA's Marshall, Kennedy, and Manned Space Flight centers as well as its involvement in Apollo technical integration at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. The "roll of honor" reference in the title refers to a 174-page collection of short biographical sketches of Boeing personnel involved in the Apollo program. ”

“ Back at Boeing, we loved the people who made small orders, because we could charge them such a premium for custom work, while the big airlines wanted stuff done so cheap that half the time we lost money on the deal. ”

“ So it was that Frank Caldwell’s controllable-pitch propeller not only saved the whole string of Boeing 247’s, but in doing so, it opened up the new era of “three-mile-a-minute” air passenger travel and started air transport on its way. After that, even the Army and Navy began to recognize the potentialities of the new propeller; it paved the way for low-wing monoplanes with their high-wing loadings and thus marked the passing of the biplanes.
But prior to the Cheyenne demonstration, Hamilton-Standard propellers dragged bottom. ”

“ A number of short lines operating routes from the Great Lakes and down through the south were soon to be merged to create American Airlines.
In 1928, an air traveler making an extensive trip would be likely to fly in seven or eight different types of planes. He might step into a Fokker tri-motor, change to a single-engined Boeing, ride for some distance in a Ford tri-motor or a Whirlwind-powered Travel Air, and finish his trip in a Curtiss Carrier Pigeon. The planes usually flew low, at between one and two thousand feet. ”

“ It was used for experimental purposes by the Air Corps, and the Boeing Company went ahead to build the high-altitude Stratoliner and the big Clipper planes for civilian use.
Thus it was that even before the Nazis swept into Poland in 1939 the Air Corps had been thinking of an airplane that would dwarf the Flying Fortress. Size alone was not enough. General Arnold and his associates wanted an airplane which would carry a heavier bomb load farther, faster, and higher than ever before. ”

“ She was fourteen, and Vicki’s younger sister.
Their mother, Betty Barr, said, “I’m sure if I had your job on a jet-prop—Or is it a jet? Which is it, Lewis?”
Professor Barr looked amused. “You know perfectly well. The all-jet without propellers,” he said, “the Boeing 707, is used more for long hauls—nonstop coast to coast, or across oceans. The Electra 188, with jet engines and propellers, is used mainly for intercity travel. I trust I have the facts correct, Victoria.” ”

“ All the major airlines contributed planes and crews to the vital needs of war. DC-3’s, which a few weeks before had been flying between our big cities, began to fly over oceans and mountain ranges in every quarter of the globe. At the start most of the planes used for Air Transport Command cargo were Douglas DC-3’s and DC-2’s and a few Boeing Stratoliners. The new Douglas DC-4’s being built for the airlines when war began went right off the production lines into service for the Army or Navy. ”

“ It was not until the outbreak of World War II that most Americans came to realize the value of the airplane in modern conflict. As the fighting grew to global proportions, Americans began in particular to appreciate the farsightedness of our Air Corps leaders in developing the long-range bomber.
By 1940 the original Boeing 299 or B-17 had grown from a sixteen-ton ship to a giant twenty-two-ton bomber. The new version, the B-17D, was powered with two 1,200-horsepower radial engines, giving it a speed of more than 300 miles per hour. ”

“ To comply with the law requiring separation of manufacturing companies from transport organizations, United Airlines was split off into a separate company known as United Airlines Transport Corporation. With the transport link between the eastern and western manufacturing groups thus disrupted, we divided them into two separate companies. The four Connecticut companies, Pratt and Whitney, Hamilton-Standard, Chance Vought, and Sikorsky, comprised the new United Aircraft Corporation. The western group took the name of Boeing Airplane Company. ”

“ It was revealed during the course of the investigation that, while PCA required in the use of Douglas DC-3 airplanes a definite established cockpit procedure by which the captain and first officer checked with each other the setting of various navigation instruments and the operation of the cockpit controls, no such procedure was required by the company in the use of its Boeing Model 247D airplanes. ”

“ Great plane. Lockheed Martin -- a great plane. So think of it: They're seven years late, they're hundreds of -- billions of dollars over budget. Other than that, by the way, the project is going extremely well. And I got the folks in from Lockheed Martin, who are terrific people and a terrific product, by the way. I also got Boeing in. I said, do me a favor, give me a competing offer. And now they're competing and fighting, and we've gotten hundreds of millions of dollars off the price of a plane that was going to be ordered. ”

“ Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation, New York. Boeing Airplane Co., Seattle, Wash.
Of these concerns, Curtiss, Standard, Burgess, L. W. F., Thomas-Morse, and Wright-Martin were the only ones which had ever built more than 10 machines.
These factories were quite insufficient in themselves to carry out the enterprise. Therefore it became necessary to create other airplane plants. Two new factories thereupon sprang into existence under Government encouragement. The largest producer of automobile bodies was the Fisher Body Co., at Detroit, Mich. ”

“ The Board would be remiss if it did not take cognizance of the concern that existed in the minds of many elements of the aviation community and traveling public regarding the three Boeing 727 fatal accidents that occurred within a short period of time. ”

“ He holds a valid FAA airline transport pilot certificate with a rating for the Boeing 707. He had a total of 17,100 flying hours, of which 170 were in the Boeing 707. He completed his latest emergency class and ground refresher course May 11, 1959. His latest FAA (formerly CAA) physical examination was passed April 8, 1959.
Flight Officer William H. Riester, age 42, was employed by Pan American World Airways on March 16, 1942. He holds a valid FAA airline transport pilot certificate with a rating in the Boeing 707. He had a total of 11,270 flying hours, of which 144 were in the Boeing 707. ”

“ It was in terms of men rather than in aërial victories that America profited. As the result of the foundation laid by men like Wilbur and Orville Wright, Glenn H. Curtiss, Glenn L. Martin, E. J. Hall and J. G. Vincent (inventors of the Liberty engine) , Guy Vaughn of Curtiss, Donald Douglas, and others, America gained world leadership in the production of aircraft engines and airplanes.
Many of the young men who flew the “crates” of World War I for the American Army and Navy are the men whose names make headlines in commercial air transport and on the world-wide battlefronts today. ”

“ In plane-to-plane combat our military pilots showed a courage and initiative unequaled by ally or foe.
With our entry into the war, our infant aviation industry also picked up speed. With typical American energy it built up an enviable production record before the end of the war. As America had no combat airplane designs at the start of the war, our industry turned out planes and engines of foreign design. Aircraft factories built English DH-4 observation planes, Handley-Page bombers, and SE-5 fighter planes. ”

“ Wright Aero, in order to earn the money with which to carry on their own experimental and development work, must first generate a reasonable volume of steady profitable business. This meant that we, and others, must buy enough airplanes to create the demand for new engines. But before we could do this, the airplanes must have been conceived, created, and tested. A number of aircraft had already been built around the air-cooled radial, among them the Chance Vought UO and the Curtiss TS, but the total was hardly impressive. ”

“ As a result, a recent report stated that there were 248 factories in the United States making planes, with over 150,000 men working on aircraft. In a single year this giant industry has sprung up, and the [231] mechanical genius of America has been focussed upon this latest problem: the heavier-than-air machine.
It is inconceivable that our country, which can boast the invention of the airplane, should in peace times allow this great industry to wane. For a long time we slept while France was forging ahead in the design and construction of machines. ”

“ Upon our entry into the war, I found myself president of United Aircraft Corporation. In the razzle-dazzle of the wartime Washington merry-go-round, I watched the expansion of air transport until it became a decisive factor in the war. Hurdling the Himalayan Hump and leapfrogging submarine-infested sea lanes, it delivered important persons and critical cargoes to decisive points inaccessible to other forms of transportation. Believing that this performance presaged the advent of expanding air commerce, we manufacturers began investing our earnings in bigger and better transports. ”

“ Using the past history of the heavier-than-air machines’ performance and their own experience and the experience of tens of thousands of flyers under all imaginable circumstances and conditions as a basis, they are building various types of aircraft. More than a score of American and British firms have already built and are putting upon the market large numbers of sports models. These machines are single and double seaters after the type of the famous Baby Nieuports, Spads, and British Sopwith Pups. They have a wing spread of anywhere from seventeen to thirty feet. ”