The story
Founded by William Boeing on Jul 15, 1916, in Seattle.1
Origins
The Boeing Company started in 1916, when American lumber industrialist William E. Boeing founded Pacific Aero Products Company in Seattle, Washington. Shortly before doing so, he and Conrad Westervelt created the "B&W" seaplane. In 1917, the organization was renamed Boeing Airplane Company, with William Boeing forming Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation in 1928. In 1929, the company was renamed United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, followed by the acquisition of several aircraft makers such as Avion, Chance Vought, Sikorsky Aviation, Stearman Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, and Hamilton Metalplane.
In 1931, the group merged its four smaller airlines into United Airlines. In 1934, aircraft manufacturing was required to be separate from air transportation. Therefore, Boeing Airplane Company became one of three major groups to arise from the dissolution of United Aircraft and Transport; the other two entities were United Aircraft (later United Technologies) and United Airlines.
In 1960, the company bought Vertol Aircraft Corporation, which at the time, was the biggest independent manufacturer of helicopters. During the 1960s and 1970s, the company diversified into industries such as outer space travel, marine craft, agriculture, energy production and transit systems.
Sea Launch
In 1995, Boeing partnered with Russian, Ukrainian, and Anglo-Norwegian organizations to create Sea Launch, a company providing commercial launch services sending satellites to geostationary orbit from floating platforms. In 2000, Boeing acquired the satellite segment of Hughes Electronics.
Merger with McDonnell Douglas
In December 1996, Boeing announced its intention to merge with McDonnell Douglas, which, following regulatory approval, was completed on August 1, 1997. The delay was caused by objections from the European Commission, which ultimately placed three conditions on the merger: exclusivity agreements with three US airlines would be terminated, separate accounts would be maintained for the McDonnell-Douglas civil aircraft business, and some defense patents were to be made available to competitors. In 2020, Quartz reported that after the merger there was a "clash of corporate cultures, where Boeing's engineers and McDonnell Douglas's bean-counters went head-to-head", which the latter won, and that this may have contributed to the events leading up to the 737 MAX crash crisis.
Corporate headquarters moves
Boeing's corporate headquarters moved from Seattle to Chicago in 2001. In 2018, the company opened its first factory in Europe at Sheffield, United Kingdom, reinforced by a research partnership with the University of Sheffield.
In May 2020, the company cut over 12,000 jobs due to the drop in air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic with plans for a total 10% cut of its workforce or approximately 16,000 positions. In July 2020, Boeing reported a loss of $2.4 billion as a result of the pandemic and the Boeing 737 MAX groundings, and that it was in response planning to make more job and production cuts. On August 18, 2020, CEO Dave Calhoun announced further job cuts; on October 28, 2020, nearly 30,000 employees were laid off, as the airplane manufacturer was increasingly losing money due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2022, Boeing announced plans to transfer its global headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The company said that this decision was made in part to concentrate on its defense work with "proximity to our customers and stakeholders". After the January 2024 Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 and other incidents, one shareholder proposed relocating the corporate headquarters back to the Seattle area in hopes of getting engineering and quality control teams on-site access to key decision-makers. Boeing's board soundly dismissed the attempt.
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In February 2023, Boeing announced plans for laying off approximately 2,000 of its workers from finances and human resources.
In May 2023, Boeing acquired autonomous eVTOL air taxi startup Wisk Aero.
Spirit Aerosystems acquisition
In June 2024, Boeing agreed to re-acquire Spirit AeroSystems, its longtime supplier of airplane parts, which had been established in 2005 when Boeing spun-off its Wichita division to an investment firm. The deal was initially discussed in March of the same year before being closed on June 30 at $4.7 billion.
In December 2025, Boeing was asked by the Federal Trade Commission to divest Spirit assets to resolve antitrust concerns, including the businesses that supply Airbus and Malaysian aerospace company Subang. The FTC said Airbus and Subang would buy those respective businesses. EU regulators said this proposed remedy fully addressed their concerns.
Labor strike
On September 12, 2024, a vote was held among Boeing machinist workers who are also members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) labor union, with 94.6% of participating members rejected a contract offer that the union's bargaining committee had endorsed, with 96% voting to strike. At 12:01 am on September 13, Boeing workers went on strike for the first time since 2008.
On October 12, 2024, the company announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs, about 10% of its global workforce, "to align with our financial reality". It would also delay the first deliveries of its 777X airliner by a year and recorded $5 billion in losses in the third quarter of the year. On October 28, Boeing initiated a significant share sale, valued at nearly $19 billion, to address cash-flow issues and avoid a potential downgrade to junk status.
On November 1, 2024, the IAM endorsed an improved contract offer which would see a 38% pay rise over four years, a $12,000 ratification bonus, and the reinstatement of an annual bonus scheme. On November 5, 2024, Boeing workers accepted the pay deal, ending a seven-week-long walk out.
Latest history
On May 20, 2026, it was announced that China will purchase 200 planes from Boeing following a bilateral meeting between China and the United States. Boeing's chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, said: "We [Boeing] had a very successful trip to China... this included an initial commitment for 200 aircraft."
From Wikipedia’s article on Boeing, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8