The Boeing Company is the world’s largest aerospace company and world’s second-largest largest defense contractor. Commonly called Boeing, it is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcrafts, rockets, telecommunication equipment, and missiles all over the world.
It was founded in the year 1916 by William Boeing in Seattle and is now a unification of two companies Boeing and McDonell Douglas. Boeing is separated into five major divisions Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Defence, Space & Security, Engineering, Operations & Technology. Its corporate headquarter is located in Illinois, Chicago.
Inception
In the year 1909, William E Boeing, an industrialist and businessman from Seattle saw airplanes for the first in his life in a world fair. He got so influenced by that he immediately joined a flying school and bought himself a new plane. In 1916 William, with his friend Conrad Westervelt built an improved version of the plane that he bought and crashed and named it ‘B & W’ seaplane, which was the first product of the company.
Later in the same year, they founded the Pacific Aero Product Company in Seattle, Washington, which they renamed it Boeing Airplane Company in 1917. Later in the year 1929, the company got a new name United Aircraft and Transportation Corporation.
Evolution
It was during World War 1 US Navy wanted training Airplanes, so newly formed Boeing company send two models of Model C’ planes to them. US Navy liked its design and ordered 50 more Airplanes. This was the company’s first financial success. In the year 1923, US Army Air Services demanded a fighter aircraft.
Two companies Boeing and Curtiss, began competing for one another to make the prototype first. Although Curtiss took the contract for its design Boeing’s PW-fighter made the company the leading producer of fighter airplanes in the world for the next decades. In early 1930 Boeing’s Model 40 passenger airplane got the contract for the US mail services, and by the beginning of 1950, Boeing developed two Stratofreighter airplanes C-97 and KC-97 as military derivatives.
In 1969 Boeing launched its commercial flight model Boeing 747. With its wide body and huge sitting capacity, it became a commercial success both as a commercial jetliner and cargo aircraft.
By 1980 Boeing became one the largest manufacturer of commercial airlines and military aircraft. To compete with its opponents like Airbus, Boeing continued to improve and update its previous models. It produced Boeing 747SP and Boeing 747-400, which were improved versions of Boeing 747 with increased sitting capacity, wider-body, and less fuel consumption.
In the year 1996, the company started working on manufacturing space shuttle for International Space Station and formed the company United Space Alliance. In early 2000 Boeing expanded its domain and started working on the satellite communication system with NASA and US Navy. In 2018 Boeing got a contract from the Pentagon of providing helicopters to protect nuclear missile bases and acquired satellite company Millennium Space System in September.
Awards and Achievements
Boeing is the largest and most successful aerospace company in the world. It has secured 24th rank on the Fortune Magazine’s list of ‘Fortune 500 Company’ and 64th rank on the ‘Fortune Global 500’ list. In 2018 it was ranked 19th on the ‘World Most Admired Company’ list. For its integration of environmental, health, and safety into its business operation, Boeing won the Robert W Campbell award in the year 2018.
Net Worth of the Name The Boeing Company in 2024
As of December 2024, the estimated net worth of Boeing Company is $230 billion, with an annual sale of $102 billion and 153,000 employees working across the world. Established in the year 1916, it has completed a century of its service of providing aerospace products to its customers around the world. The Company is split into five major divisions Boeing Commercial Air Planes, Space and Security, Boeing Defence, Engineering, Operation, and Technology; Boeing Capital and Boeing shared services group.
In 2009 Boeing topped the Top 100 US Federal Contractors in the second position with a contract of $23 billion, respectively. In September 2018, Boeing signed a deal of $2.4 billion with the Pentagon for providing helicopters to protect nuclear-missile bases.
In a study, it was found that the airline company Boeing is alone responsible for the 11% emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by the U.S transportation sector. In response to this, Boeing suggested that biofuels, which are a mixture of algae fuel and existing jet fuel can reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by 60 to 80% and collaborated with a Brazilian and New Zealand jet biofuel making companies Tecbio and Aquabionomic. The company has tested six fuels and are expected to test 20 more until they find the right blend of biofuel that will reduce the emission on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.