Description
Author: Alain Pelletier, Hardbound, 256 Pages, H4703, ISBN: 9781844257034, English Edition First Published, 2010
Boeing is a global player in the fields of civil and military aircraft, weapons systems, missiles, electronic systems and spacecraft. It is the biggest aeronautics firm in the world and for most people the name has become synonymous with the jet airliner.
Boeing's reputation was not created easily. In achieving it, the men who have directed the Seattle enterprise since its launch in 1916 have had to face many challenges, some of which threatened the company's very existence. On four occasions Boeing's future has rested on the success or failure of a single aircraft.
The story began with William Edward Boeing, the son of European immigrants, who took over his father's timber business. A shrewd businessman attracted by novelty, he got the flying bug, decided to study aeronautics and in 1915 he and a naval lieutenant, G. Conrad Westervelt, built the tiny 1,270kg B &W seaplane. Boeing went on to found the Pacific
Aero Products Company which, in 1917, became the Boeing Airplane Company. Alongside his industrial activities, he was for many years one of the leading
figures in the development of air transport in the US.
This authoritative book, illustrated with more than 300 photographs, describes all the vicissitudes in the life of the company and its products, many of which have long since been forgotten, while others have become aviation icons.
Appendices include data on aircraft designed by Boeing, performance figures and design features of Boeing aircraft and helicopters, missile data, jet airliner orders and deliveries, military aircraft deliveries, and Boeing's financial results.
Alain Pelletier, an aeronautical engineer, is an aviation historian and author who has written about French and American aircraft and aviation technology for 25 years.
