On July 15, 1916, industrialist William Boeing and naval engineer Lieutenant Conrad Westervelt pooled their resources in Seattle, Washington, to officially incorporate the Pacific Aero Products Company, a historic enterprise that would later change its name to the Boeing Company. Operating out of a modest, lakeside timber shipyard, the founders began construction on their very first aircraft, a fragile, twin-float seaplane known simply as the B&W Seaplane.
The unmentioned engineering gamble behind this July 15 incorporation was that William Boeing had absolutely no formal background in aviation design and started the company purely out of spite. After taking a ride in an early barnstormer plane, Boeing became so thoroughly disgusted by the aircraft’s shoddy workmanship and fragile wood framing that he confidently declared he could build a far safer machine himself, utilizing the advanced carpentry skills of local Northwest shipyard workers to construct the canvas wings that launched a global aerospace empire.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
