William Edward Boeing

Born: 1881 | Died: 1956

Entrepreneur

William Edward Boeing, the son of a German immigrant, was born in Detroit. He was merely eight years old when his father died and spent most of his youth in Swiss boarding schools.

In 1903, Boeing left Yale University and bought extensive timberlands and also lumber operations. Having visited the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition together with Conrad Westervelt in 1909, he became attracted to the future opportunities of the aviation industry. In 1914, after a flight with a water plane, Westervelt and Boeing decided to build their own airplane.

On July 15, 1916, Boeing founded the Pacific Aero Products Company, which was later renamed as Boeing Airplane Company. He changed the company’s profile by operating commercial air mail between Chicago and San Francisco in 1926. While his competitors expected his Boeing Air Transport to go out of business, the company morphed into a larger entity that eventually included United Air Lines.

In 1934 the Air Mail Act ordered him to break up his company into three separate entities: United Aircraft Company, Boeing Airplane Company, and United Air Lines. The same year, William Boeing resigned as CEO withdrawing all his capital and leaving the aviation industry.

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