In the early years of the 20th century William Edward Boeing summed up his new company’s mission: "To let no new improvement in flying and flying equipment pass us by." And sure enough, in the century since, nothing and no one has outflown Boeing. The Story of the Boeing Company, plane-maker to the world, unfolds on a fittingly grand scale in this book that is at once the history of one company and the story of an industry. Aviation author Bill Yenne follows Boeing from its modest beginnings in 1916 as Pacific Aero Products, with a single two-seater floatplane, to its present lofty position as the largest aerospace company in the world. Lavishly illustrated, it showcases historic aircraft that made the company’s name—the B-17s and B-29s of World War II to the 707 jetliner that revolutionized commercial flight; and the mammoth 747 to the B-52 Superfortress that still soldiers on over 50 years after its debut. All the moves and mergers are chronicled. 2nd ed.

In the early years of the twentieth century, William Edward Boeing summed up his new company’s mission: "To let no new improvement in flying and flying equipment pass us by." And sure enough, in the century since, nothing and no one has outflown Boeing. The Story of the Boeing Company, the tale of the plane-maker to the world, unfolds on a fittingly grand scale in this book that is at once the history of one company and the story of an industry. Lavishly illustrated, this book showcases historic aircraft that made the company’s name—the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-29 Stratofortress of World War II, and the B-52 Superfortress that still soldiers on over 50 years after its debut to the 707 jetliner that revolutionized commercial flight and the mammoth 747. Fully updated, it includes the 787 Dreamliner, Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB), and EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack Aircraft.

The name Boeing evokes vivid images, from the B-17 Flying Fortresses of World War II to the 707 and 747 jet transports that revolutionized air travel. Less well known: The Boeing Company built the first stage of the Saturn rocket that started men on the way to the moon, developed the Minuteman missile system, and is now designing America's space station. Boeing jets, in service around the globe, carry 675 million passengers annually--the equivalent of twelve percent of the world's population. Behind the statistics and the awe-inspiring aircraft is a company of paradoxes, a vast organization nimble enough to take daring market risks that have kept it at the top of its industry. Robert J. Serling, forty-five years an award-winning aviation writer, takes the reader behind the scenes with humor, objectivity, and abundant anecdotes: Boeing once went seventeen months without seeing a single domestic jetliner and came close to bankruptcy. One of its legendary test pilots unexpectedly barrel-rolled a prototype jetliner, into which the company had sunk one-quarter of its net worth, because he thought the stunt would help sell the airplane. Legend and Legacy, Robert J. Serling's most ambitious work to date, reads like a novel, complete with memorable characters who, despite occasional stumbles, helped win the war and conquer the commercial skies: The salesman who almost traded a used 727 for $12 million worth of underwear. The vice president who worked in a darkened office illuminated by a single, low-wattage light bulb. The gifted, driven engineers who did the impossible, by yesterday. Never in its seventy-five years has Boeing been so revealingly profiled. This book is must-reading for anyone fascinated by the history of aviation.

Founded in 1916, Boeing Commercial Airplanes is the premier aircraft builder in the USA and one of the biggest aerospace constructors in the world. To the man in the street Boeing is inextricably linked with some of the greatest names in aircraft design and construction: the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, the 707 (the USA’s first commercial jet airliner), the revolutionary 747 ‘jumbo jet’ and the massive B-52 bomber. This comprehensive and handsomely illustrated history of the ‘plane builder from Seattle’ includes details of every aircraft it has ever built, together with data charts and informative text boxes.

A biography of Bill Boeing, a pioneer in the development of aviation and the founder of the Boeing Company, which started out building military and transport airplanes and now builds most of the world's passenger jet aircraft.