WEBVTT - Boeing Launches 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.840 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.680 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.000 I Heart Radio and How Stuff Works and I love 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:24.160 all things tech. And as I record this, there is 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:29.120 an ongoing story in tech and aviation news. You've probably 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.800 heard about it that's focusing on the troubles with Boeing's 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:37.280 seven thirty seven Max aircraft. So far, it's resulted in 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.920 two fatal accidents in less than half a year, which 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.800 led to the entire fleet of seven thirty seven Max 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:49.000 aircraft being grounded across the world, while lots of people 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.440 are looking into it and figuring out how to fix 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.160 things and how to prevent such tragedies from happening in 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.160 the future. Now, in a subsequent episode, I'll look into 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:03.400 that specific problem more closely, because obviously it is very important. 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:05.839 A lot of people lost their lives in those tragedies. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.000 But today we're going to look at the history, the 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.440 origins of Boeing and the role that the company has 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.080 played in technology over the years, not just in commercial jets, 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:21.039 but also military technology like helicopters and bombers and things 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.120 like that, and missiles as well as even components for 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.680 space vehicles. And the company is more than a century 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:33.759 old at this point. So how did it all get started? Well, 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.720 we should probably begin by focusing on the founder of 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.440 the company itself, William E. Boeing. William E. Bowing was 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:47.080 born in eighteen eighty one in Detroit, Michigan, and his 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.480 is not a rags to riches story. It's more like 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.720 a riches to holy cow. That's a lot of money 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:01.440 riches story. His father was Wilhelm Boeing. Uh that spelling 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.840 of Boeing is slightly different from the modern spelling. Modern 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.840 spelling is b o e i n g the Anglicized 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.440 spelling of Boeing, but originally it was b oh with 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:17.440 an oombl out i n g. So. Hillhelm Boeing immigrated 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.960 from Europe to the United States in eighteen sixty eight. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.520 Wilhelm himself was from a well to do family, though 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.560 he did not have a fortune to his name upon 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.079 arriving in the US. He had a lot of connections 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.880 which helped him out. But he didn't exactly come over 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.839 to the States with pockets full of cash. He had 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.359 to make his own fortune. He would meet a man 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.560 named carte Ortmann, who essentially helped Wilhelm get into the 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.560 lumber trade, where he would flourish and he amassed a fortune. 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.440 He also got into mining during his own lifetime. The 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:57.720 mining operations that he created weren't terribly um profitable, but 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:00.320 they would prove to be so in the long run. 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.720 It was just unfortunately after he had already passed away. 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:09.520 He also eventually married uh cart Portman's daughter, Marie, and 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.960 they had three kids, including William E. Boeing Uh. He 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:18.440 was born into wealth as a result, and Wilhelm would 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.919 die in eight nine. He contracted influence. He actually died 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.560 on a train ride back home. William Boeing was only 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.120 eight years old at that time. His mother remarried and 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.760 he was sent off to attend a prestigious boarding school 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.760 in Switzerland. So talk about a life that I can't 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.280 really identify with at all. He would return to the States. 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:45.280 He attended other rather exclusive prep schools before he would 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.720 eventually enter Yale University, and he decided to study engineering. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.600 Now at the time, the engineering program at Yale was 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.600 a three year program, but Boeing wanted to pursue his 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.600 own fortune a little earlier than that, and so he 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.839 draw out of university after just two years. He then 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.880 decided to move to the Pacific Northwest and following his 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.520 father's footsteps and get into the lumber trade. At this point, 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:16.760 the Michigan area was pretty heavily deforested. I mean there's 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.240 still had plenty of forests, but the lumber industry had 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.640 really operated for quite some time there, so he decided 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:27.039 the Pacific Northwest was the next prime real estate for 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:32.120 the lumber industry. Boeing's company, the Greenwood Timber Company, proved 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.800 to be very successful, and by now it was the 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:39.400 early nineteen hundreds. Around nineteen ten, William E. Boeing would 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:43.400 attend an air show near Los Angeles, California, and he 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.080 got a look at early airplanes. Now keep in mind 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.120 this is nineteen ten. The Right brothers had their successful 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:52.839 flights just in nineteen o three, so very early days 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:57.839 for aviation. William Boeing was immediately interested in airplanes and aviation, 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.159 and he even tried to arrange for a ride in 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.680 an airplane, but found that none of the pilots were 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.160 particularly willing to provide one, and so it would go 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.000 until about nineteen fourteen. That's when William Boeing met another 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.520 person named George Conrad Westerveldt. He was an officer in 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.039 the U. S. Navy who also had a fascination with 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.720 aircraft and had been stationed over on the West Coast. 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.360 The two men became close friends. They shared a lot 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.040 of common interests together, and in nineteen fifteen they met 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:32.359 an aviator named Terra Mahoney and he was happy to 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.240 have them aboard his Curtis seaplane and he gave them 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:41.479 some flights around and that just cemented their interest in aviation. 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.400 Boeing decided to officially enroll in flight school in nineteen 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:51.120 fifteen in Los Angeles, California. He completed his training, and 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.360 then he decided to, you know, treat himself the only 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.719 the way that that multi millionaire types can. He bought 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:04.800 his own airplane. There was a model t a seaplane, 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.280 and essentially this was a type of training aircraft. To 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.240 be fair, there weren't a whole lot of different varieties 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.120 in nineteen fifteen. There's still very early days for aircraft. 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.240 He did not exactly fall in love with this airplane 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.320 as soon as he purchased the aircraft, he had to 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.680 pay for a replacement pontoon. This seaplane had a single 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.320 pontoon upon which it would land, as opposed to the 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.960 dual pontoons you often see with seaplanes. He hired on 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.680 a crew to maintain the plane, but he didn't own 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.359 it for very long before it had an accident and 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.520 got partially wrecked. In the fall of nineteen fifteen, it 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:47.119 crashed into Lake Washington. Boeing was not aboard the plane 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.640 at the time, so he wasn't piloting the aircraft or anything, 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.920 so he was not injured in this, but the aircraft 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:57.320 itself was damaged, and Boeing was just largely unimpressed with 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.440 the performance of the aircraft. He became convinced he could 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.679 help design a superior airplane. Now, around that same time, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.560 there were more than a dozen fledgling companies that were 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.640 trying to design and build aircraft, but I don't mean 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.120 to suggest there were a lot of actual aircraft being 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.400 produced as a result. In fact, in nineteen fourteen, there 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.960 were fewer than fifty planes manufactured by all of these 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.800 companies put together, and at this point there were no 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.560 real practical applications for planes, so there wasn't much call 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.840 for making more of them. They were mostly seen as 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.360 playthings for wealthy hobbyists who were otherwise pretty bored with life. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:41.440 So if you had a lot of money and you 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.400 didn't have a whole lot of concern for your own 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:48.520 personal safety, you might try to start building aircraft or 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.200 buying one. So a lot of those companies were founded 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.720 by people who weren't that different from William Boeing himself. 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.920 Though at least Boeing had had some engineering training under 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.440 his belt, some of the people who founded some of 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.720 these early airplane companies didn't even have that. Boeing reached 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.000 out to Westervelt to help him with the design, and 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.360 they also hired on a mechanic and pilot named Herb 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:16.000 Munter as well. Westervelt secured time with a wind tunnel 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.800 that was operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.560 m i T, and they tested their various designs. They 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.040 would bring wooden models to test in the wind tunnels 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.480 and take very careful measurements of how well those designs 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.360 were doing. These were not full scale replicas, but you know, 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.080 small scale wooden ones. Ultimately, Westerveldt designed a plane that 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.240 didn't look that much different from the Model T A 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.720 C plane that Boeing had purchased in the past. There 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:47.559 were some important differences, So the Model T A had 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.360 that single pontoon on it, but the new aircraft would 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.040 actually have two pontoons to help with stability. But in 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.240 many other ways, it was a fairly close copy of 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:02.400 that T A airplane. They called this first plane that 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.160 they built the Blue Bill, and they put it through 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.560 a test flight on June fift nineteen sixteen. It was 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.959 a success. It actually did very well on that test flight, 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.640 and it would become the basis for the company's first aircraft, 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.280 which became known as the BMW Model one B and 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:27.520 W stood for Boeing and Westerveldt. Of course. One month 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:33.760 after that test flight, on July nineteen sixteen, William Boeing 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.920 filed articles of incorporation for a new company called the 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:44.280 Pacific Aero Products Company. Those articles of incorporation were rather vague, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.040 no telling if it was purposeful or not, but it 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.840 would end up being a huge help to the company 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.040 a little later on. I'll explain more in a bit, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.439 but this is the company that would ultimately become bowing 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.920 and why Boeing The company traces their history back to 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.280 nineteen sixteen. Officially, the company would change its name a 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.600 little less than a year after it had formed, and 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.439 it became the Boeing Airplane Company in May nineteen seventeen. 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.080 But we've got a little bit more to talk about 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.800 before we get to nineteen seventeen. So Westerveldt would not 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.880 stay on. He couldn't. He was actually transferred back to 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.040 the East Coast. So he had this sort of end 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.440 his official business relationship with Boeing. However, he would remain 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.800 important to the company. He would refer talent from the 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.480 East Coast to go and work for his friends company 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.640 out west, and one of those referrals was a man 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.360 named Wong Sue, who would become known as the first 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.600 actual engineer on Boeing's staff, and some would even call 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.480 him the father of Boeing because of his influence in 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:57.559 those early early days. So Wang Sue was born in Beijing, China, 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.240 in eighteen ninety three. When he was only twelve years old, 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.800 the Manchu government would select him to become a navy 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:10.320 cadet at the Young Thai Naval Academy. When he was sixteen, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.439 the government sent him to study naval architecture and engineering 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.840 in England at Armstrong Technical College. Then he had the 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.560 opportunity to attend m I T and study their brand 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:27.200 new courses in aeronautical engineering. It was the first of 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.240 such programs in the United States. He expressed a desire 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.280 to stay in the US for a couple of years 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.959 beyond his graduation in order to get some practical experience 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.680 designing and building aircraft before returning to China. When Westervelt 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.800 was looking for someone to send over to Boeing, Wong's 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.240 instructor at m I T, the guy who actually created 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.880 this aeronautical engineering UH program at M I T, a 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.680 guy named Jerome Huntsucker amediately said that Wong was the 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.959 right candidate. He would play an important part in Boeing's 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:05.840 early successes. So the original Boeing factory back west was 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.679 a boat house that wasn't too far from Seattle, Washington 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.600 on the Duomish River. And by the way, I'm sure 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.200 I'm mispronouncing and butchering names, and I will continue to 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.320 do so throughout this episode, and my deepest apologies for that. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.400 That is a failing on my part. Well, William Boeing 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:28.920 had some interesting ideas about creating incentives for employees his engineers. 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.160 He said, well, you know what if you are designing 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.360 a plane, if you're building a plane, you also can 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.240 fly it. You're allowed to fly the planes that you're building. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.520 So they weren't just the engineers and manufacturers, they were 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.679 the test pilots as well, and Wong would get to 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.080 construct planes for Boeing and get to fly them if 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.960 you wanted to the first plane, Wong would have a 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.720 hand in designing, and really the main one was the 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.560 Model C, which was ready for its first test flight 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:04.600 on uh November five, nineteen sixteen, which was just a 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.720 few months after the BMW test flights. So one thing 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.439 that really struck me as I was doing research for 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:16.320 this episode was how close together some of these dates are. Like, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.200 it's amazing to me. The thought of putting together a 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.000 prototype aircraft and then flying it, and then going right 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.600 into the design and production of a different prototype aircraft 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.960 right away and being able to do it within a month. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.760 It's phenomenal to me. Now. Granted, in these days these 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.760 aircraft were made out of canvas and wood, that would 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.080 be a while before they would switch over to metals 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.520 like aluminum. But still, and you know, they were also 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:43.920 in lumber country up in the Pacific Northwest. They had 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.640 no shortage of that, and and of course Boeing himself 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.720 operated a lumber uh company, so that helped as well. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.760 But still, it's pretty amazing to me. Anyway, the BMW 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.040 had showed that Boeing could make a working aircraft, but 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:01.560 it had very little application outside of that wealthy obbyist market, which, 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.520 as you might imagine, was a pretty limited slice of 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.640 the population. The Model C would prove to be much 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.520 more versatile, and it was helped in no small part 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.120 by the fact that over in Europe the Great War 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.280 what we would later call World War One, was raging 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:21.120 and it was only a matter of time before the 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.120 United States was pulled into it. So the aircraft that 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.440 flew on November five, nineteen sixteen was called d C four, 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:30.560 and that was because it was the fourth airplane that 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.320 William Boeing ever owned, and Wong would redesign the Model C, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.600 giving it a bigger rudder, among other changes, and this 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:43.120 redesign Model C was ready by April nineteen seventeen. That 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.280 was the same month that President Woodrow Wilson would declare 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:51.080 war on Germany, putting the United States into World War One. 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:56.320 As for Wong, he received the princely sum of fifty 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.320 dollars and seventy seven cents for his work as an 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.040 engineer and then was released from Boeing the company, that is, 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.040 on May twenty, nineteen seventeen. He returned to China and 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:14.040 he established the first Chinese airplane factory there. So, while 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.680 we're talking about money, this fifty dollars and seventy seven 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.480 cents that Wong earned for all his work with the 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.680 Boeing Company, let's talk a little bit about how much 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.080 the Boeing Company earned from a contract they made with 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.720 the United States Navy during World War One. The Navy 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.240 wanted proof that the Model C would meet its needs, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.800 and they asked for a demonstration at a naval base 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.880 in Pensacola, Florida. Now, for those of you not familiar 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:44.360 with US geography, Pensacola, Florida is pretty darn far away 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.840 from Seattle, Washington. The two locations are on opposite sides 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.920 of the country. Seattle, Washington's in the northwest, Pensacola, Florida's 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.280 in the southeast. And the United States is really wide. Well. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.360 This presented something of a challenge because the Mode SEE 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.320 aircraft had a fairly short range of flight. These early 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.400 airplanes could not go that far, so in order to 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.000 get to this demonstration, Boeing actually had to pack a 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.560 couple of planes up in pieces disassembled on a train 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.120 an urban munter. The mechanic and pilot I mentioned a 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:24.000 little bit Ago, as well as a factory superintendent named 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:29.400 Claude Berlin, would travel with these disassembled planes across the 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.720 country on train, arriving at Pensacola and then assembling them 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.280 again so that they could be flown on behalf of 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.840 the Navy so that they could evaluate the aircraft. Now. 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.160 The flight test was a huge success, and the Navy 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.120 put in an order for fifty Model c's. The price 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.120 tag for those fifty planes was five hundred seventy five 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:57.440 thousand dollars, so quite a bit more cheddar than Mr 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.200 Wong had earned. The Boeing company would build a new 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:05.840 manufacturing facility near Seattle nicknamed the Red Barn, and the 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.520 Navy would also order a couple of other special aircraft 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.399 on top of these fifty Model cs. They wanted a 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.280 couple of modified models c's sometimes referred to as E 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.959 A s of e A standing for experimental aircraft, and 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.919 these were land planes. They were meant to land on 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.840 firm ground rather than on water. They also asked for 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.159 another variant called the C one F, which had a 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.800 single main pontoon as opposed to the pair of pontoons, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.680 as well as a couple of auxiliary floats to add stability. 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:42.280 And that was the beginning of some pretty lush days 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.280 for Boeing. But when we come back, I'll talk about 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.600 another industry that opened up real opportunities for Boeing beyond 0:17:49.880 --> 0:18:00.240 the military. But first let's take a quick break. You know, 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.680 it's got to be pretty weird to have a business 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.560 really take off, because whatever it is that you happen 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.000 to be making is really important for war efforts, because 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.120 your profitability is dependent upon violent struggles in which millions 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.040 of lives are potentially at stake. And moreover, it creates 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.400 an odd situation which you might on some level wish 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.440 for continued hostilities because that means you stay in business. 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.399 It's pretty dark. In fact, the Boeing Airplane Company was 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:32.199 almost completely dependent upon military contracts. In addition, to the 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.520 model C aircraft they were making for the Navy. They 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.320 also secured a contract to build another company's aircraft. This 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.840 would be the Curtis H S two L from the 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.879 Curtis Aeroplane Company. The Navy would use these types of 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.680 aircraft on anti submarine patrols off the coast of France, 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.119 and the Navy anticipated a greater need than what Curtis 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:59.119 could produce in its own manufacturing facilities, so Boeing landed 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.200 what would have been a pretty lucrative contract to create 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.560 licensed versions of the same aircraft. So Bowing didn't design 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.479 this aircraft. They were working from a Curtis design uh 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.399 and they would get a certain amount of money for 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.280 producing these aircraft. However, before Boeing could really get moving 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.240 on this production, World War One came to an end 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.440 and the Navy canceled the order for those HS two 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:28.399 L planes. At that point, Boeing employed three seven people, 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:33.600 but the contract with the military was seen as a 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:38.960 really pivotal contract for the company's survival. It was important 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.960 because there weren't really any other streams of revenue coming 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.560 in that were reliable. So William Bowing first loaned some 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:50.240 of his own money to the Boeing Company for the 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.520 purposes of meeting payroll, because they weren't bringing in enough 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.080 revenue to pay everybody. Even so, the demand for aircraft 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.480 plummeted once the war was over, and Boeing had little 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.120 choice but to scale back the airplane company. They reduced 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.800 it down to sixty seven employees by nineteen nineteen. But 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.600 Boeing had another application for aircraft early on that wasn't 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:17.879 dependent upon military actions, and it wasn't commercial flights either, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.159 because those were still several years away. Instead, it was 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.200 delivering the mail, or at least the potential for that. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:29.200 On March third, nine, nineteen, William Boeing himself co piloted 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:34.800 a plane that was designated the Sea seven hundred, so 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.320 another variant of the Model C. It was to carry 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:42.480 mail from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to Seattle, Washington, and 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.280 technically it was the first international airmail delivery to the 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.439 United States. I think it was something like sixty letters 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.240 or packages, so it wasn't a whole lot, and it 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.800 wasn't exactly a total success. Boeing and his co pilot, 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.560 a guy named Eddie Hubbard, were forced to land prematurely. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.240 They landed about twenty five miles north of Seattle, because 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.320 again these aircraft weren't really capable of taking very long 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.280 flights and they were running very low on fuel. But 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.120 it was a sort of proof of concept for air 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.600 delivery and would help establish the practice in earnest. Later on, 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.000 the Post Office would take full control of that for 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.200 quite a few years. Now, there was a real danger 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.639 of Boeing going out of business in these early years. 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.159 Not only did the contracts with the military dry up, 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.359 but the country was also entering into an economic depression. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.520 This wasn't the Great depression that would come on a 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.679 little bit later, but it was an economic depression and 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.160 there was very little call for aircraft. So to keep 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.080 the factories in operation, the company began to produce other stuff. 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.760 This was partly possible because, as I mentioned earlier, when 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.040 William Boeing was first incorporating his business, his articles of 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.720 incorporation were pretty darned vague, So his company was allowed 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.760 to make lots of different stuff, and he dedicated factories 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.600 to build whatever was in demand, like furniture, So you 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:07.919 could have ended up with a dining table created by 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:12.480 aeronautical engineers possibly. The company also had a contract to 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:16.640 provide maintenance and service to military aircraft, which helped a little, 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:21.600 and Boeing would land another big military contract. This time, 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:25.200 the agreement involved the design and construction of twenty g 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.720 A one and twenty g A two bombers. Now, these 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:33.600 were also aircraft that weren't designed by Bowing. These were 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:38.399 designed by the New Army Air Service, and Boeing would 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.200 just act as the producer of those aircraft. The manufacturer 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.959 of those aircraft. The company got to work, but the 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:50.240 Army canceled the contract after ten g A one bombers 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:54.439 and three g A two bombers were complete. However, the 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:59.680 Army also chose Boeing to build two hundred MB three aircraft, 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:03.159 and the NB three were fighter planes, also not designed 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:05.920 by Boeing. They were created by a different company called 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.480 Thomas Morse. So why did Boeing end up with the 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:13.359 contract to build this other company's planes. It's because William 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:17.280 Boeing was incredibly aggressive when bidding for contracts, and Boeing 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:20.320 came in with the lowest bid at one point four 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.240 million dollars for two d aircraft, and so the government said, 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.000 you win, you get to build them. Meanwhile, there was 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.360 still a need to find civilian uses for airplanes. Eddie 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:33.280 Hubbard would convince William Bowing to make a sincere push 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:38.480 for air carrier operations, so airmail. Essentially, those were the 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.840 guys who had made history back in with what had 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.640 been at the time mostly a proof of concept airmail run, 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:49.680 but Hubbard felt that it was a possible legitimate avenue 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.399 and a source for revenue for the company outside of 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:56.800 military contracts. At the time, the United States Post Office 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:01.040 was operating all of its own aircraft for air mail delivery. 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.720 The aircraft in question was a clunky beast called the 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:09.040 d H four, and it wasn't a particularly agile for 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:14.760 more importantly safe aircraft. The Post Office initially hired forty 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:20.840 pilots to deliver airmail by and this is a sobering fact, 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:26.679 thirty one of those forty pilots had died in plane crashes. 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:30.679 So the Post Office sought for a new, more reliable, 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:34.000 and more maneuverable plane to take over the job of 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:39.640 the d H four, which obviously was not not performing 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.440 up to standards. It was far too dangerous. Boeing proposed 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.639 a new design. They called it the Model forty A. 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.240 One of the most important components of this particular aircraft 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:53.080 was that it would use a totally different kind of 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:57.480 engine from previous aircraft. So engines can get really hot 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:01.080 and airplane engines like the d H four relied on 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:03.639 water cooling, but that meant the airplane would have to 0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:06.640 carry a tank of water in addition to everything else 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:09.280 in order to keep the engine cool. Water is heavy, 0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:11.280 and the slashing of water can make it hard to 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:14.640 fly a plane steady. The Model forty A instead had 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:17.919 an air cooled engine designed by a company called Pratt 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:22.120 and Whitney, which was essentially part of the Boeing family. 0:25:22.680 --> 0:25:26.640 As the name implies, these engines manage heat by dissipating 0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:30.840