Boeing - Past, Present and Future (A Review at the Year End of 2001) Based on a presentation at SCAAE (Society of Chinese American Aerospace Engineers) by C. C. Tien Boeing at a Glance Boeing announced on March 21, 2001 the plan to move its corporate headquarters in September to one of three cities under consideration, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX and Denver, CO. This was a shock to us in Seattle, WA. Boeing has been an institution in Seattle for a long time. It started in 1915 when 3 aviation pioneers from Seattle, Boeing the financier, Westervelt the designer and Munter the assistant builder, decided to construct a seaplane, which was commonly known as the B&W. Mr. Boeing made the first flight himself off the waters of Lake Union. In Boston, the 1915 class of the aeronautical engineering department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had 7 graduates. There were 2 American and 5 Chinese engineers, one of whom was Mr. [Wong Tsu]t Mr. Wong was a naval officer from China whom Mr. Boeing hired at a salary of $80 a month to serve as the first engineer of his expanding aircraft business to improve designs. Mr. Wong might have suggested to sell the B&W boat plane to the Navy. The prospect of actual sales required Boeing to think about incorporating. In 1916, an airplane company was formed in Seattle called Pacific Aero Products by Mr. William Boeing. The legend of the Boeing Company was born. By the early 1930s, Boeing became part of a holding company, one building airplanes, another company making engines, another serving airmail contracts, and another carrying passengers. In 1934, federal anti-trust regulators broke up the conglomerate into several entities, which later became the Boeing Company, United Airlines and Pratt-Whitney Engine Company. The new era of air travel dawned in 1954 when Boeing rolled out from its Renton factory the prototype jet airplane Dash 80, commercially known as Model 707. Later airplane models 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 came to dominate the commercial airplane market around the world. In the 50s and 60s, Boeing began to expand into the fields of missile (Bomarc, minuteman, SRAM) and space (Lunar Orbiter and Roving vehicles, Saturn, space shuttle, space station). Boeing bought Rockwell Aerospace in 1996. In 1997, the Boeing Company officially combined with the McDonnell Douglas Corp. to create the world's largest aerospace enterprise. In 2000, Hughes Space & Communications was acquired by Boeing.Contributions of Chinese American Engineers. Mr. Wong stayed in Seattle as chief engineer until the end of WWI, when he returned to China in 1920 and worked in the Chinese Air Force and aviation industry. In 1949, he went to Taiwant and spent his last eight years teaching at Chen Kung University in Tainan. In 1991, Boeing established a Boeing Guest Lecture Series at the University to recognize Mr. Wong's contribution to the early development of the Boeing Company. Mr. Abraham Goo was a third-generation Chinese-American from Hawaii. He began his career at Boeing after graduating from the University of Illinois in 1951 with a degree in electrical engineering. Due to his outstanding performance in engineering and management, he came to Seattle to become president of Boeing Advanced Systems Co. in November 1987. Previously, he had been president of the Boeing Military Airplane Co. located in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Hua Lin was born in Beijingt, China. He received a B.S. degree from the National Tsinghua University in China in 1940. He began his aerospace career in the Burmese jungles, assembling pre-Pearl Harbor P-40 fighter airplanes for the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers). In 1943, he came to the United States to obtain a M.S. degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan. In 1955, he received his doctorate from MIT and joined the Boeing Aerospace Company to work on space and missile programs. For three years (1975-1978), he was on loan to serve in the Pentagon as the director of offensive systems. After June 1978, Dr. Lin served as the Chief Scientist of the Boeing Aerospace Company, until he retired in 1984. When the jet transport age blossomed in the late 1950s, Boeing Transport Division hired many Chinese engineers to develop and design commercial jet airplanes. In 1962, the Society of Chinese Engineers in Seattle was formed. Chinese engineers at Boeing have made many important contributions in the fields of computing, engineering and sales. A cursory survey in 1993 indicated there were over 800 Chinese professionals out of 2,000 Asian members in the company. Boeing has been a company of "diversity" for many years, even before the word became a popular term in the last two decades. The emphasis of performance excellence for career growth is the proud tradition of the company and hopefully, it will continue to expand in both technical and managerial arenas. (Part 1 of 4, to be continued.)