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July 14, 2016 - July 20, 2016 When Boeing Got its Start This week HistoryLink looks at the history of the Boeing Company, which incorporated as the Pacific Aero-Products Co. 100 years ago this week, on July 15, 1916. Founded by William Boeing one month after the launch of his first airplane, the aviation company got off to a good start producing float planes for the U.S. Navy. After World War I ended, Boeing and his partner Eddie Hubbard delivered America's first shipment of international air mail to Seattle from Vancouver, B.C. Hubbard next prevailed on Boeing to compete for the Chicago-San Francisco route -- a lucrative contract the company won on January 28, 1927. Unfortunately, Boeing had recently lost its crucial Sand Point landing-strip privileges to the U.S. Navy. The company threatened to move to Los Angeles, but instead King County helped out by building a new airfield for commercial use. With this boost, Bill Boeing set his sights even higher with the development of the first modern airliner, the Boeing 247, and the incorporation of United Air Lines. But in 1933 the new Democratic administration and Congress began investigating the cozy regulation of airlines under Republicans, and Senator (later Supreme Court Justice) Hugo Black personally grilled Bill Boeing on his "monopolistic" practices. Federal trustbusters canceled the lucrative airmail contracts and broke up the Boeing-United conglomerate. His empire in ruins and deeply embittered by his congressional inquisition, William Boeing retired and never again played a significant role in his namesake company. No longer in the airline business, the company once again concentrated on building planes. The Boeing 307 opened new vistas in air travel as the world's first pressurized airplane, but it was military craft like the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress that made the company fly high. During World War II, thousands of workers from across the country toiled around the clock to produce hundreds of bombers and fighters at Boeing's plant along the Duwamish River. Their efforts helped win the war, and solidified Boeing's -- and Washington state's -- role in the burgeoning aerospace industry. Where Boeing Went from There After World War II ended, the Cold War brought in new military contracts for planes like the B-47 Stratojet Bomber and the B-52 Stratofortress. The company later diversified into aerospace products like missiles, rockets, and even a "moon buggy" for lunar exploration. But the jet age is where Boeing really made its mark, and its fortune. In the mid-1950s, the Boeing 707 took to the air -- spectacularly, to say the least -- and jet sales went sky-high. In the early 1960s, Boeing gambled more than $150 million on the development of the Boeing 727 trijet, which paid off when airlines rushed to order the aircraft for their short-to-medium-range routes. And when the public got its first view of the gigantic Boeing 747 during its rollout, many couldn't believe their eyes.   But then the company stumbled. In 1970 the U.S. Senate canceled funding for development of Boeing's Supersonic Transport (SST) when cost overruns due to design problems became too great. Thousands were laid off and the "Boeing Bust" sent economic shockwaves throughout the region. It took most of a decade for the company to recover.   In the 1980s, Boeing began building modules for the International Space Station, but found stiff competition in the passenger-plane business from a new competitor -- the European company Airbus. In 1997, Washington celebrated when the hometown Boeing team merged with rival McDonnell Douglas, but local pride was bruised four years later when the company relocated its executive headquarters to Chicago. Nevertheless, Boeing's assembly plants in Renton and Everett continue to hum, and Washington remains a key player in the aerospace industry.